EASTNOR skipper Jim Sandford may have rued the day at the end of this Village KO round three tie when he asked the home side to bat, what a wonderful thing hindsight is!

ASTWOOD BANK v EASTNOR

But his side made a good start keeping the openers well pegged back. Clayton (53) batted well but after 20 overs the home side had only scored 50 runs for the loss of two wickets. Shahid, Faisal and especially Sandford (0-23, including one big six from his nine overs) had kept the home side quiet.

Either the villagers were then over confident or lost the plot as things went horribly wrong, 53 from Clarke and a final burst of 37 from Boycott saw a further 160 runs from the final 20 overs as they closed on 209-6.

A superb run out saw the demise of Shahid as Eastnor replied, before Dan Baker (39) and Jabran (39) pushed the visitors on. Passing 20 overs on a total of 80 runs the first hurdle had been passed.

Then disaster struck as Clarke and Boycott continued to ruin Eastnor's day with the ball, as they had with the bat two hours earlier. Falling behind the run rate every over, Nick Bollen, Keith Fortey and Zubair tried to up the pace but all fell to good catches as Eastnor fought on bravely.

It was not to be as Fortey was out at 149 in the 27th over.