BARNT Green First XI suffered a disappointing Bank Holiday weekend in the Birmingham and District League Premier Division.

On Saturday, the weather scuppered any hopes of a positive result against Cannock with Barnt Green on 23-1 off seven overs and looking good on a short run chase. They were replying to a Laurie Potter-inspired total of 156-7, Ross Lupton being the pick of the bowling.

Barnt Green lost Ryan Driver in the gathering gloom which was soon to turn into a violent thunderstorm. Cannock managed three points to Barnt Green's five.

Better weather welcomed them at Stratford on Monday.

Batting first, Stratford got 226-4 declared with Warwickshire's Huw Jones scoring a magnificent 130.

Driver fell early on and Neeraj Prabhu was caught on the boundary. Matt Dallaway stood firm and built a steady partnership with Lupton.

But the ex-Abergavenny star was caught at mid-off with the score on 80.

Dallaway brought up a well paced 50 and Barnt Green looked a decent bet with 125 to get off 22 overs.

But the opener was harshly given out stumped and Adam Smith continued his unfortunate run of scores when he was bowled around his legs.

Jones was still in pursuit of the target as wickets tumbled. Youngsters Edwards and Ahmed failed to stick around and Cowley was comically run out.

But the skipper found an able ally in the unlikely form of Mike Hind who stonewalled impressively as Jones tried to earn another bonus point by getting past 200.

It wasn't to be Barnt Green's day as Troughton bowled Hind in the penultimate over. Green ended on 176 with Jones unbeaten on 48.

He said: "It was a tough weekend. We were slightly frustrated on Saturday with the poor weather and Stratford came at us strongly after their loss against Kidderminster.

"We didn't disgrace ourselves, but some of our batters are short of confidence at the moment."