BROMSGROVE secured their first league win of the season on Saturday by comfortably overcoming Aston Unity by 96 runs.

The Boars catapulted off the bottom of the Birmingham and District League Division One into the top half after a fine all round display in Sutton Coldfield.

Encouragingly Bromsgrove's batsmen produced solid form with the willow, before bowlers Nick Husbands and Zafran Ali dismantled Unity's batting order and ensure a 96 run victory.

In one of the few games to survive the atrocious weather conditions the match was reduced to 42 overs for each side.

Captain Nick Davies lost the toss and saw his side put into bat on a bowler friend damp wicket.

But Bromsgrove provided stubborn resistance to frustrate Aston Unity. Openers Simon Allison and Davies did their best to impede the Aston bowlers' progress with a 42 run partnership in 11 overs.

The openers' resistance was broken when Malik dismissed Australian Allison for 25, he also removed Bromsgrove's captain for 21 runs.

But Omar Ali built on the opening pair's decent platform with 39 before Paulo caught him off Andrew Stevenson's delivery.

Mark Evenson hit 32 runs, while Julian Court (31) and John Duffy (22) added a flurry of runs late on as Bromsgrove recorded a formidable 191-6 in difficult batting conditions.

It took no time at all for Bromsgrove's bowlers to find their range and decimate Aston's top order batsmen.

Husbands set the tone when he had Terry Hudson (0) out LBW with his first delivery.

Hong Kong international Malik (4) was caught by Court off Ali as Aston collapsed to 16-2.

Bromsgrove's progress with the ball was stalled by Butt's 56 not out - but the wickets tumbled around him.

Mark Bagley caught Paulo (11) off Husband's delivery and Ali dismissed Aston's captain and key batsman Aurrel Kirnon for six runs.

Bagley trapped Simon Cooke LBW (9), while Bromsgrove's captain dismissed Chris Dargan (2) and David Allsop (0).

Ali, who took an impressive 3-32, dismissed Pierre Rocha for one run and Husbands completed the rout when he had Allison catch Stevenson for zero.

With bad weather across the West Midlands making Bromsgrove's match one of the few to go ahead, victory allowed the Boars to rise seven places in Division One to sixth.

l Bromsgrove will be aiming to start an unbeaten run over the Bank Holiday Weekend.

The Boars entertain Smethwick at St Godwalds on Saturday, May 27, before welcoming Shifnal to Bromsgrove on Monday, May 29 (both matches 1pm start).