MISSING first XI players caused a knock on effect right through the three Worcester Nomads Saturday teams and because of this all three teams lost matches in the Worcestershire Clubs League.

The 1st X1 fixture at Bransford with Chaddesley Corbett did not result in the expected high scores although this was not the fault of both sets of openers both of whom reached partnerships of over 100. Malcolm Jones (73) and Kieran Rees (58) showed the way to the first eleven remnants and remarkably Kevin Truswell (73) and Mark Boden (58) did exactly the same for Chaddesley. However only Ian Jinks with 24 for Nomads and Alan Baylis with 31 for Chaddesley batted with conviction after and Chaddesley won by 4 wickets.

The result of the 2nd X1 fixture at Chaddesley was hinged on the changing state of the pitch. Nomads having lost the toss found batting difficult on a damp pitch and did well to reach 168 with Jon Diment (46) and John Ranscombe (32) being top scorers. Chaddesley had little difficulty in winning by eight wickets as the pitch changed condition in hot sunshine.

The third X1 were well defeated on an excellent Colwall batting pitch. In a well conducted match the Old Elizabethan opening bowler, Ben Green, gave his side an advantage from the start by dismissing Chris Oakley and Ed Davis for low scores and the OEs never lost the initiative; going on to win by six wickets. Stefan Rees scored an excellent 60 for Nomads but this was eclipsed by Roger Price with 77no for the OEs. Richard Watkins with 3-27 was the only Nomads bowler to finish with good figures.

On Sunday the Nomads 1st X1 achieved a good win over visiting Broadway. In a total of 190 Richard James (79), James Kelly (40) and Guy Broadfield (29) all batted well and when Broadway replied with 156, Paul Ranscombe (3-40) and Anthony Massey (2-36) were the most impressive of the home bowlers.

The Sunday 2nd X1 found the Elmley Castle middle order far too strong and after holding the early batting to 60 in the first 20 overs, another 180 runs came off the next 20 overs with Simon Cooper (87no), Bob Eaton (65) and Brian Barber (40no) scoring the bulk of the runs. James Massey (3-93) and Iain Elliott (2-31) took five of the six wickets to fall.

Nomads in reply never looked likely to reach the 249 required for victory and at the end Pip Sirrell (50no) and Bill Jones (19no) were left to play out the last few overs.