BARNARDS GREEN 1STS v MALVERN RAMBLERS 1STS

THE Green 1sts lost the local derby to the old enemy, Malvern Ramblers, in a hard fought encounter at North End lane on Saturday.

Ramblers winning the toss asked the Green to bat on an easy paced wicket. They lost Richard Williams in Thompson's third over and Danny McKay went soon afterwards when falling lbw to Francis.

From this point wickets fell at regular intervals with batsmen getting out when long to build on a good score. With runs always hard to come by and some tight bowling the totals were always going to be on the low side. Chris Hill (43) never took control when needed, this meant that later batsmen were always under pressure to get a total, which they could defend. Paul Drinkwater (22) and Martin Heaton (25) helped to take the score to 145 at close.

Thompson 4-15 off 10overs and Hawker 3-40 off 14 overs were the pick for the visitors.

The Ramblers made a bright start with Neal (36) scoring freely. He put on 37 with Baugh for the first wicket. With James Watson and Jason Young finding it hard to get into a good rhythm it was David Creese who caused the visitors a lot of trouble. His accuracy always put them under pressure and wickets began to fall at regular intervals.

James Watson (2-44) came back well in his second spell and with Creese they took the Green to within sight of victory but Peachey (17) and Arnold (16no) just saw the visitors home by two wickets.

David Creese returned figures of 6-26 off 20 overs of which 13 were maidens and James Watson 2-44 off 10 overs were the pick of the home attack .

At close the Ramblers were 147-8.

The Green wish to thank sponsors Clarke Roxburgh.