BARNARDS Green Singles opened their Worcestershire County League division five campaign with a four-wicket success over Alvechurch and Hopwood.

ALVECHURCH & HOPWOOD v BARNARDS GREEN SINGLES

New skipper Ratcliffe won an important toss and asked Alvechurch to make first use of a damp wicket.

This decision was vindicated as opening bowlers Hill and Spiers produced a miserly spell and Alvechurch struggled to a total of 147, that never looked enough.

Top scorers for Alvechurch were Moretow (49) and Lea (42).

The Singles response was one of dogged defence as Alvechurch's bowlers extracted the venom as earlier. Freeman (14) and Lewis (20) crawled to 30 of 15 overs until Lewis was bowled by change bowler Clifford, Freeman suffered the same fate when Morrison just clipped the off bail.

Curtis (15) shouldered arms to straight one, Brewer (19) lobbed one to slip. All the while the run rate was creeping upwards. Skipper Ratcliffe took control smashing the ball around for a rapid 19 until he and Beavan both perished sweeping across the line.

With 48 needed off 12 overs the game could have gone either way but the belligerent Dave White swatted 18 off one over to wrestle the tie back in the Green's favour.

The wise head of Chris Hill stroked the ball to all parts as the Green raced to their victory target with five overs to spare and secure the first win of the season.