AFTER suffering a heavy defeat last Saturday, Pershore hit back with a vengeance to defeat Mon-day's visitors Coleshill by seven wickets.

David Powles was the Bank Holi-day hero with a magnificent unbe-aten century and a five-wicket haul.

Skipper Stephen Cooper's decision to ask the visitors to bat first backfired when Ali and Suliman had rattled up 63 in the opening ten overs.

It was left to spinners Powles (5-40) and Lee Wilks (2-40) to halt the onslaught and, backed up by good fielding, the middle order disintegrated.

Coleshill lost six wickets for 48 runs before losing two more as Luke Dalley mopped up the tail leaving Pershore to score 173 for victory.

Saturday's dismal form with the bat was then continued as the top trio of batters were back in the pavilion with only seven runs on the board.

However, Powles, after enjoying some early fortune, found support in the shape of Phil Oxley and Liam Ridings, and the chase was back on.

Powles and Oxley added 57, while Ridings helped his senior partner add a further 55. But, victory was still a long way off when dad Tre-vor replaced his son at the wicket.

Batting with a runner, Ridings brought his experience to the fore and helped Powles inch towards victory and his own personal cent-ury milestone.

Seventeen runs were still needed when Martin Johnson joined Powles who then smashed successive boundaries to take him past three figures and Pershore to a three-wicket triumph.

Saturday saw Pershore produce their worst display of the season when they went down heavily to St George's.

It took the Shropshire side several minutes to decide to bat first on a track that looked full of runs but that decision looked to have backfired when Pershore reduced their opponents to 48-3 after 15 overs with Australian danger man Matt Lunn back in the pavilion.

However, that was as good as it got for Pershore despite Martin Johnson (2-54) producing another good spell with the ball as the Saints rattled up a daunting 55-over total of 267-8 with seven batsmen reaching double figures and two passing fifty.

All the home bowlers took wickets but, apart from Johnson, economy and penetration were lacking.

The target appeared a reasonable one on a track showing few signs of wear and tear and a rate of five-an-over not a stiff test by any means.

Pershore, though, never got to grips with their task and, despite the top quartet all reaching double figures, the reply had lurched to 89-6 and an early finish was on the cards.

Mark Stevens showed the resilience necessary and, with help from the stubborn Johnson, the hosts still had their sights set on a draw.

That finish eluded them as Lunn returned to the attack to polish off the tail and leave the Saints the winners by 112 runs.