SOME excellent fielding from Himbleton CC First XI captain Dean Oliver and solid bowling from Steve Mills could not stop a losing draw in a high-scoring match.

Wicketkeeper Oliver held on to five catches, including one diving to his left, while Mills took 5-87 at home to Stourbridge in Worcestershire County League Division Four last Saturday. But the hosts were still 58 runs behind their opponents at the end of play.

Captain Oliver said: "It was a very competitive game. We probably gave away too many runs during the last eight overs of the Stourbridge innings and this gave us a tougher task than we had hoped for but, with our batting line up, I was optimistic that we could achieve the target of 268.

"Accurate bowling from Stourbridge meant that we were always behind the clock and the target was always going to be slightly out of reach."

Stourbridge won the toss an elected to bat. The visitors made steady progress throughout their innings - Abdul (40), Shah (64) and Shafoor with a hard hitting 61 were the main contributors to their final total of 267-8.

Mills' 5-87 was the pick of the bowling, along with the captain's catches.

Veteran Pete Rogers scored 53 and 15-year-old Jamie Alford scored 59 in Himbleton's reply of 209-8 but the slow start to the innings gave Stourbridge the better of the fixture with a winning draw.

Asif (5-15) was the leading wicket taker for Stourbridge.

Himbleton receive nine points and Stourbridge 15.

Himbleton Seconds won the reverse fixture by six wickets.

K Patel hit an unbeaten 53 as Stourbridge posted 133-6 but D Jenkins' half century saw Himbleton home just four wickets down.