COLWALL suffered mixed fortunes on their first competitive weekend of the season when a heavy defeat on Saturday in the league was followed by a comfortable victory in the Village Cup Knockout on Sunday.

Both games suffered from interruptions due to the frequent heavy showers, on Saturday it worked against Colwall and Sunday in their favour.

BREDON v COLWALL

PUT in to bat by Bredon, it was soon apparent that the wicket was to help the seam bowlers and the damp outfield was to hinder the ball.

The loss of the prolific Powell and then Matt Fortnum to the ball of the day put Colwall into a defensive frame of mind. Colwall attempted to force the run rate by running more quick singles but the policy backfired when skipper Wolfendale was run out.

Tim Riley and Tom Macnamara put together a patient 30 but with overs running out both perished trying to push up the run rate. The remaining batters were able to edge the score towards respectability but 123 was not really enough to set Bredon who could adopt a risk-free strategy to the run chase.

Colwall's opening bowlers applied pressure at the start of the innings restricting Bredon to ten runs from the first ten overs.

The wicket was not as helpful to the Colwall bowlers and their only success came when Prince bowled Hall for 11. Ridsdale at number three was the only batsman all day to look comfortable at the wicket and his fluent 50 was the difference between the sides.

COLWALL v BELBROUGHTON

SUNDAY'S game against Belbroughton saw a reversal of fortunes.

Asked to bat, Powell and Wolfendale were in superb form and dispatched the ball to all parts from the outset. Their 150- run partnership, disrupted by six rain breaks, set the basis for the rest of the team to have some fun in the closing overs and a daunting 242 was the victory target for the visitors.

For the first 15 overs Belbroughton were still in the hunt but when Mike King induced Attwood to play a rash shot and his elder brother Matt disposed of the dangerous Nightingale for just three, the game was up and the visitors folded over 100 runs short of the target.

The next cup round is away to Feckenham on Sunday, May 22.