Todd Henderson fires Pelsall to victory

A tense clash saw the title hopefuls edge to a three-wicket win on a day when the bowlers dominated.

A testing surface made life difficult batters and it took a stand-out innings from all-rounder Todd Henderson to see Pelsall over the line while new signing Ryan Brown also impressed on his debut.

Brown, who agreed a switch from Birmingham League Division One outfit Himley, teamed up with fellow spinners Paul Grainger and Lee Buckingham to rip out Walsall YPF for 109.

Brown ended with figures of 3-16 from 10 overs while Grainger and Buckingham picked up 3-13 and 3-16 respectively. Naweid Younis (23) was the only home batter to pass 20.

Henderson then took centre stage in the run chase with 59, ensuring Pelsall were past the revised target on 97-7 when the rain finally ending proceedings. Extras, with 12, was the next highest score with no other batsman reaching double figures.

“We had rain on the morning and the pitch was a real leveller,” said Pelsall skipper Danny Pennell. “It was just one of those games where you dig in to get a result and then move on to the following week.

“It was good to get the 20 points especially with some of the sides around us seeing their games abandoned.

“It was down to Todd’s brilliance with the bat. He played the situation really well.”

The win saw Pelsall leapfrog Beacon, whose game with Penn was abandoned, with Pennell delighted to have strengthened his squad with the addition of Brown.

“It was a big decision for Ryan to leave Himley because he had been there for a long time,” added Pennell.

“He is good friends with one of our players, Dan Wale, and I just think he fancied a change and wanted to play first-team cricket.

“It’s a very good signing for us. He is a good bowler and excellent in the field and he also strengthens the batting.

“The three spinners all bowled well on Saturday. Lee Buckingham had been doing well in the second team and he has come up to the firsts and taken his chance.

“We have five seamers and three spinners so there is some variety to our attack.”

Penn skipper Mark Green was left frustrated when the weather ended their victory charge against Beacon.

After bowling Beacon out for 175, with Imran Jamshed bagging three wickets, Penn’s innings came to a halt just two overs short of the 20 required to constitute a match with Green’s men on 86-3.

“We were above the score we needed to be on after 20 overs but unfortunately we were unable to get those extra two overs in,” said Green, whose side travel to Hammerwich on Saturday.

“But we can take some confidence from our performance because we were by far the better team on the day.”

The result left Penn in fourth and with Green hopeful they can mount a serious push for promotion.

“I think there are four or five sides in the mix and now that we are in the win or lose format the league can change quite dramatically in the space of a few weeks.”

Cannock are sitting third following a 40-run success against Springvale.

Nicholas Trebilcock (33) and Adam Benton (30) helped Cannock to 211-7 from their 50 overs with Springvale’s David Geran picking 3-48 from his 10 over stint.

Opener Paul Baker led Springvale’s response with 67 but apart from Matthew Bennett’s 32 he lacked support with Cannock chipping away regularly to dismiss their visitors for 171.

The only other positive result saw Whittington triumph in a rain-affected clash at Rugeley.

Rugeley skipper Scott Gretton led the way with the bat for his side.

Coming in at number seven, Gretton joined forces with Nathan Trimbrell (59) to launch a fight back.

Gretton eventually fell 10 runs short of a deserved century but his efforts helped his side to 246-8 from 50 overs.

But it was Whittington who were celebrating at the end of a day blighted by the weather as they picked up the 20 points.

Opener Daniel Wilkes struck an unbeaten 68 and skipper Dan Hackett chipped in with 28 to take past their revised and to 114-2.

In the other matches, Aldridge posted an impressive 282-4 against Swindon thanks mainly to Omair Farooq (83), Ross Doolan (67 not out) and Chris De Wit (49). Swindon were 43-0 when the rain intervened.

Skipper Sajid Nazir scored 65 in Wednesbury’s total of 181 against Hammerwich, who were 59-1 when play was abandoned.