Express & Star

Milford Hall hot on heels of leaders in race for the title

Defending champions Milford Hall defeated Hammerwich by five wickets on home soil to keep tabs with South Staffordshire County League leaders Fordhouses in the title race.

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Milford Hall restricted Hammerwich to 176-6 from 48 overs with Will Davis and Stuart Phazey collecting two wickets apiece.

Jordan Bulpitt began the chase with a quickfire 28 while Dom Afford propelled towards victory with an impressive 64.

Ibby Thaman chipped in with a further 25 as Milford reached a match-winning 180-5 with 13 overs to spare.

Fordhouses romped to a 128 wicket victory over Pelsall to maintain their 14-point lead at the league summit.

Batting first, Saqib Akbar totted up a commanding 69 runs before Muhammad Imran added another 48 to put Fordhouses firmly in the driving seat.

Pelsall managed to bowl Fordhouses all out inside 41.2 overs but not before they had reached an unbeatable score of 271.

Smit Meha (44) and Joel Bannister (35) attempted to lead Pelsall to a comeback charge but they ultimately fell short at 143-6.

Wombourne still have an outside chance in the title race after beating fourth-place Beacon by 40 runs to sit 22 points adrift of the summit.

Nathan Howell hit a quickfire 50 runs to set Wombourne on course while Suwath Mendis and Jack Hussey chipped in with 39 and 28 respectively to finish the innings 199/9.

Roger Fildes high-scored for Beacon with 56 but couldn't prevent them from being bowled out for 159.

Rock bottom Aldridge continued their quest to pull off a miracle escape after registering back-to-back victories over sixth-place Penkridge.

Haider Ali Ehsan racked up 42 runs while Stuart Wood and Cameron Bliss registered 41 apiece as Aldridge finished the innings at 201-8.

Penkridge were bowled out for 128 as Tharusha Fernando collected three wickets to help guide Aldridge to victory by 76 runs.

Elsewhere, William Mashinge's 97 was not enough to prevent Walsall from falling to defeat by three wickets against Walsall.

Walsall registered a strong 256 on the bat but Lichfield reached 259 inside 48.5 hours with Robert Turner hitting an excellent 49-ball 83.

Cannock edged away from relegation trouble after beating second from bottom Tamworth 2nds by five wickets.

Sam Kinson high-scored for Tamworth with 38 as they finished their innings with 163. Adam Evans fired 61 for Cannock who reached a revised target of 175 to climb 27 points clear of the bottom two.