For the third year out of four, Worcester Nomads are through to the national final of the ECB U13 competition.

After becoming the Worcestershire champions, Nomads defeated Stratford to reach the regional finals at Colwall.

In the semi-final against Brockhampton, Nomads made a fine 159-4, Nathan Newport and Cameron Pimlow both scoring 30 retired, and then bowled out the opposition for 102 (Robert Allen 2-7).

The final proved much more testing as St Fagans made a rapid start. Nomads stuck to their task, however, and pegged back the Welsh team to 96 all out. There were five run-outs and Geoff Taylor took 2-5.

Guided

Nomads were in trouble at 19-3 but Newport (26) and Allen (29) guided them to the brink of victory, and Bryant and Stafford scored the last few runs to seal the victory in 17.3 overs at 97-6.

The finals are at Oakham School, Rutland from August 6-9, where Nomads will play a round-robin against the other seven regional finalists.

Nomads' U15s lost by 10 wickets to Wolverhampton in the county final of the ECB/Sunbank PLC U15 competition.

Nomads were put in on a spinner's wicket and collapsed to 70-9 in the face of quality spin bowling, D Prescott (5-11) causing real problems with his leg-breaks. Liam O'Driscoll (15), Miles Illingworth (15) and Guy Davies (10no) were the top scorers.

Nomads, with only one spinner had no answer to Annan Patel (51no) as Wolverhampton won by 10 wickets in 12.4 overs.

Nomads U15s won their league encounter with Pershore by 15 runs.

Nomads made 119-7 thanks to skipper Dominic Harris (30), Illingworth (24), O'Driscoll (12), Tom Marsh (15no), Dan Davis (12) and Davies (12no). G Yates (2-1), Mike Doust (2-17) and Luke Dalley (2-28) were the wicket-takers.

Pershore fell short despite Sam Howell (36no) and M Hickey (25) batting well. Illingworth (2-23), O'Driscoll (2-26) and Davies (1-2) did the damage.