Advantage Pelsall as title rivals slip up

Danny Pennell’s table-topping side are 13 points clear of second-placed Beacon with just two games of the Premier Division season to go after a winning draw and win from their two weekend clashes.

Beacon endured a mixed bag with a loss and a victory from their outings while Milford Hall saw their title hopes all but ended by back-to-back defeats.

But Pennell, whose side emerged with a winning draw from a keenly-contested game with Lichfield on Saturday before easing past Wombourne on Monday, is refusing to take anything for granted.

“We will just concentrate on the next game, which is at home to Fordhouses,” he said.

“We saw again with some of the results over the weekend that any side is capable of beating any other one.

“Whittington are in the bottom two but they beat Beacon on Saturday and beat us earlier in the season. Both Fordhouses and Brewood, who we play last game, have got match-winners in their sides.

“We can’t afford to let up because if we lost on Saturday then we could find ourselves chasing going into the last game.”

After opting to bat first, Pennell saw his side dismissed for 176 against Lichfield.

South African Johan Maritz made 44 at the top of the order, with wicketkeeper Tom Wright contributing a valuable half-century at number seven. Nick Richards took 3-34 from 15 overs while Graham Wilson bagged 3-12.

Lichfield were reduced to 87-5 in reply, opener Will Davies making 33, before a sixth-wicket stand of 61 between Adam Braddock (55) and Callum Heanan (28) put them back in with a shout.

But the victory push stalled when the duo were dismissed in quick succession, with Lichfield finishing on 172-8. Spinner Ryan Brown took 5-57.

Brown was among the wickets again on Monday as Pelsall cantered to a comfortable 136-run success at Wombourne.

Omair Farooq (76), Tom Boyd (52) and Todd Henderson (35) guided Pelsall to 243-8 after they had been 15-2.

Wombourne were never in the hunt as Brown claimed 4-11 from 10.2 overs. Jonathan Moore and Maritz offered support with three wickets apiece as Wombourne fell for 107, with Basit Zaman (34) and Tom Elwell (31) the only home batters to pass 30.

Beacon were on the end of a shock defeat at home to Whittington.

The visitors were 87-7 and 109-9 chasing Beacon’s 165, but got home thanks to a brilliant counter-attack from number 10 Abid Hassan.

He smashed an unbeaten 50 off 36 balls and shared a match-winning 10th-wicket stand of 51 with Matt Griffiths, who ended nought not out from 15 balls.

Beacon bounced back to beat Hammerwich by 101 runs on Monday.

This time it was their lower-order batters who got them up to a decent total.

Ollie Green (61) and Michael Hartwell (21) put on 72 for the ninth wicket to help push their score to 193. Opener James Fildes had hit 32 but Beacon were then reduced to 92-7 thanks to brilliant spell of 5-33 from Stephen Blews.

In reply, Hammerwich were undone by seamer Matt Cartwright (5-45) and spinner Ben Robinson (3-13). Former Beacon all-rounder Jimmy Howell ended 52 not out.

Hammerwich had claimed a winning draw against Fordhouses on Saturday.

After being dismissed for 215, with skipper John Jennings and Ben Traat both scoring 50s, Hammerwich then restricted their hosts to 167-8 in reply.

Cannock’s faint hopes of beating the drop were ended by successive defeats at the hands of Brewood and C&R Hawks.

Saturday saw Cannock dismissed for 184 by Brewood after openers Royeth Hussain (63) and Andrew LeFeaver (41) had helped take them to 107-1.

Brewood then edged home by one wicket despite the best efforts of Matt Robinson, who took 4-52.

Faizan Khan (70 not out), Hussain (44) and Adam Benton (35) were all among the runs on Monday as Cannock made 229-7 against C&R Hawks. Former England one-day international Kabir Ali picked up 3-31.

Hawks then made light work of their chase, easing home by seven wickets thanks to an unbeaten century from in-form skipper Mubeen Rashid and 56 not out from Ali.

Rashid had also reached three figures against Wombourne on Saturday, albeit in a losing cause.

His ton helped his side to 249, but a fine 130 from Basit Zaman fired Wombourne to a seven-wicket win inside 37 overs.

Monday’s other top-flight clash saw Brewood claim a four-wicket success at home to Whittington.

Sajid Nazir top-scored with 46 in Whittington’s total of 142 – Will Marsh excelled with the ball to bag 6-26 from 13 overs.

An unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 52 between Richard Bradford (32) and Nick Wright (29) saw Brewood over the line.