DROITWICH Spa Cricket Club First XI warmed up for their tough Worcester County League opener at Ombersley this Saturday with two friendly matches inside 24 hours last weekend.

New captain Steve Walsh's side tied the game at Harborne, a match which saw nearly 600 runs scored between the teams, before defeating Pershore by five wickets on Sunday.

Walsh lost the toss against Birmingham and District Division One outfit Harborne and put the hosts in.

Adrian Field and Mike Rogers restricted Harborne to 26-1 from the first ten overs with Field picking up the wicket of Dyer.

But Spa struggled to contain Gear in the freezing conditions and the Harborne opener raced to his century in the 34th over, eventually retiring for a fine 123.

The other Harborne batsmen played freely with wickets in hand, setting Spa a huge total of 294 from 45 overs.

Dave Scott-Walker and Jerome Connor opened the batting with Scott-Walker finding his form before being dismissed for an excellent 112.

Chetan Soma, Spa's new South African signing, joined Jerome Connor at the crease. Connor went for 79, followed by Paul Bryan for zero.

With 35 needed from four overs, Soma was caught while Walsh and Rogers were both dismissed by the leg-spin of Moreton.

Victory looked unlikely with 16 required off the last over. But Field came to the rescue with two boundaries, among singles and a Glen Harrison boundary, to tie the contest.

On Sunday, two wickets each for Anthony Small, skipper Martin Woodward and Chetan Soma helped restrict Pershore to 141 from 40 overs.

Gary Cartwight's 37 and 20's from Soma and Walsh put Spa in a winning position. Small and Danny Garbett completed the job with six overs to spare.