Astwood Bank skipper Alex Robinson led by example as he steered the village side through to the quarter-finals of the National Knockout Cup.

The Worcestershire League Division Two side are now just two games away from a final at Lord's following their 11-run defeat of Nottinghamshire side Plumtree.

Staffordshire outfit Draycott & Hanbury lie in wait for Robinson's side in the next round on Sunday, August 3, with another sizeable crowd expected to make the trip up the M42.

Vice captain Andy Clayton, who hit a solid 20 at Plumtree, said the travelling Astwood Bank supporters helped the players against their much-fancied hosts.

"The support we had was amazing," Clayton said. "Two coaches made the trip with others going by car. There were more than 100 of our supporters and we easily outnumbered their followers."

The Bank were put into bat after losing the toss and lost two wickets in the first eight balls. Clayton helped stop the rot but it was Robinson's innings of 76 that kept the visitors in the hunt.

Clayton added: "We could easily have lost it after such a bad start. We showed great team spirit to recover and after reaching 186-8 we were really on a high.

"We had a talk and said we would leave it to them to make the mistakes. In the end, they lost the match as much as we won it."

After losing a wicket in the opening over, Plumtree recovered to reach 151-3 and looked to be cruising to victory. But two wickets in two overs from Dennis Freeman (3-36) together with useful spells from Steve Clarke (3-12) and John Summers saw the home side crash to 175 all out.

Clayton believes that a Lord's final could now be on the cards.

"They were one of the top sides and beat another well-fancied club in the previous round. We know that if we play as well as we have been playing on a Sunday then we can beat anybody in the competition."

Astwood Bank had to be content with a winning draw from their league match with Stourport on Saturday.

The home side posted 222 all out before restricting the Bank to 200-6 in reply.

They face a tricky test this weekend when they travel to Alvechurch.