THE battle is over! Worcester Cricket Club titanic struggle to remain in Division One next season has failed.

They visited Aston Unity on Saturday in a must win situation and were defeated by five wickets, to remain firmly at the bottom of the division with one game to play.

Guy Muspratt won the toss for Worcester and surprisingly decided to bat on a damp wicket following some overnight rains, and his side got off to the worst possible start collapsing to 19-5 in 11 overs, a situation from which they never recovered.

Adam Binks did his best to restore some pride in to the team with a heroic 38notout in 131 balls and the tail supported him well with Mark Chambers (21) and James Wagstaff (35) enabling Worcester to reach a modest 134 all out in the 54th over.

Destroyer-in-chief for Unity was Asif Hussain with 7-63 in 23 overs.

In reply Unity reached 56-1 in the 17th over when a rain shower delayed proceedings, but the inevitable happened for Worcester as they failed to defend such a small score.

Unity reached 135-5 thanks to Simon Cook (58) and Jason Young (45no), both benefiting from being dropped twice.

County player Stephen Moore bowled well to grab 3-10. Worcester took three points to Unity's 20.

Worcester final game next Saturday is at home against Sutton Coldfield.

n Worcester's second team completed their home programme with an accomplished five wicket win against Wednesbury.

The visitors made 216-4 in their 50 overs thanks to some wayward bowling and slack fielding from Worcester.

Esim Patel was top scorer with 88 not out, well supported by Steve Brotherton with a hard hit 56.

In reply Worcester stumbled to 27-2 but a fine 48 from Paul Symmonds and an aggressive 77 from Richard Franklin enabled them to reach 217-5 in the 40th over. Worcester took 20 points to Wednesbury's five.