BARNARDS Green U15s entertained Worcester U15s in a knockout game and it produced an excellent contest.

Batting first, the Green posted an impressive 123 off their 16 overs losing just one wicket when Lewis Hooper was caught off Doyle for 14. Liam Paddock hit a chanceless 64no and was well supported by Phil Harris with 32no against an accomplished Worcester attack.

In reply, Worcester struggled against some accurate bowling from James Scullion and Tom Clack who removed opener Peppiatt for three. The introduction of Adam Price and Lee Hammond saw three further wickets tumble.

However, Worcester skipper Liam Weston started to find the boundary with some glorious shots and chips into the gaps, he brought Worcester right back into the game and at the end received good support from Padden (12) who was then dismissed by Paddock. With just seven required off the last over, Weston struck the winning boundary with one ball to spare.

Many thanks to Colts' sponsor Inline Engineering for their continued sponsorship.

COLWALL U11s made a winning start to the Bishop Trophy competition against Hanley Castle and Upton U11s.

Put into bat, the Colwall openers, Will Micklethwaite and Jack Cooney, played well to keep the Hanley bowlers at bay. Runs, however, became difficult to score on a pitch that became wetter as the drizzle fell. The next pair of George Oliver and Henry Coleman again found scoring difficult against some keen bowling and fielding. Coleman, however, scored the side's first boundary, to boost the team's confidence.

With the weather improving, Neil Green and Alex Parker began to accumulate some more runs and crucially denied the home side any more wickets. The last pair of Arthur Jones and Joe Critchard then pushed Colwall's score to a respectable 245, with Critchard adding two more boundaries.

Hanley Castle, in reply, were knocked back by captain Critchard's two wickets in his second over. Further wickets picked up by Coleman, Jones, Parker and Green restricted the home side to 213, allowing Colwall to wrap up the victory by 34 runs.

WITHIN nine balls of this match starting Hanley and Upton U14s were reduced to one run for three wickets by Malvern U14s.

This disastrous start brought Hanley captain Barton Mathews (15) and left-hander Tom Pugh (38) together and this pair took the score to 62 before the next wicket fell. Sharp (2-9) and Jenkins (3-11) were the stars for the Malvern attack, but some big hitting from Andy Short (15) including one massive six, saw Hanley to 94-7 in their 20 overs.

Hanley's seven bowlers used on the night, all gave a good account of themselves. Sharp (19) and Puffett (28) batted confidently if a little slowly but they were pinned down by some pacey bowling from Chris Duckworth (1-3) whilst Mathews (4-8) added valuable wickets to his earlier runs as Malvern reached 63-6 in their allotted overs.

THIS was the first time that many of the Hanley Castle and Upton U11s and Malvern U11s had played a 20/20 format game.

The Malvern team batted first and Davies (12); Welwyn (6) and Dovey (8) all made excellent contributions.

With cold hands, fielders were finding life difficult but not Hunt who took a superb one-handed diving catch in the slips. The generosity of the home bowlers in giving away 34 extras allowed the Malvern team to post a very creditable 69 off their 20 overs.

Hanley's innings got off to a fine start with hard hitting opener Spring (25) playing extremely well. Bottomley (2) played a dogged supporting role and after only four overs Hanley had amassed 35 runs. To their great credit Malvern gave all of their players a bowl allowing Hanley to ease towards their required total and captain Mathews (24no) and Pantling (3no) saw their side home.