IAN Suckling was again among the runs for Evesham in Sunday's thrilling Clubs League clash against Barnt Green.

The left-handed opening batsman top scored with 64 and helped Francois Nel give the hosts a fine start in pursuit of 226 for victory.

Will Lloyd, Will Bailey, Mark Penter and Gareth Howman all seemed set to post the crucial big score but it was left to Gary Smith to play the day's most talked about innings as his unbeaten 32 steered Evesham to the brink of victory only for Marcus Selby's last over run-over to leave the match tied.

Barnt Green had made a flying start thanks to 87 from Williams and 65 from Stock but the rest of the batting crumbled as Berrel Le Kay bagged superb figures of 4-9 in a total of 225-9 that proved just enough to avoid defeat.

Chris Weaver hit 55 for the Academy side in the reverse fixture that saw Evesham dismissed for 154 - a total the hosts overhauled for the loss of five wickets.

The club's second team had also tasted Birmingham League misery 24 hours earlier when Aston Manor rattled up a daunting 250-7.

Howman (30), Matt Wright (38) and Marcus Humpston (24) all failed to capitalise on good starts in reply and, despite a half-century for Andy Milner, Evesham were dismissed for 195 in the final over.

St George's are Saturday's opponents for Evesham's two senior sides with the first team again on home territory.