MALVERN visited Brockhampton on Saturday and could only manage a losing WCL Division Two draw after a disappointing performance.

BROCKHAMPTON v MALVERN

Brockhampton batted first and Rob Francis, after his six wickets the previous week, quickly added another wicket to his tally with a brilliant diving catch off his own bowling to dismiss Howlett.

Parker soon followed but from then on the innings was dominated by Walker who scored an excellent undefeated 117. Gordon Hawker bowled a good spell for Malvern and Adam Bywater claimed a deserved wicket. Francis as usual was Malvern's most successful bowler.

Malvern had an awful start losing the first three wickets for 14 runs. Paul Young and Steven Carter steadied the innings but once they were out at 44-5 Malvern settled for some batting practice.

James Purnell scored a stylish 37, Mark Baugh was undefeated with a solid 22 and Chris Prosser, who was also unbeaten on 22, played a very mature innings which included a superb straight six off the last ball of the match.

MALVERN II v BROCKHAMPTON II

MALVERN Seconds grabbed another 20 WCL points with a victory at Regency Road.

The visitors got off to a dreadful start losing both openers in the first over to Nick Dennis. However, for the next nine overs some wayward bowling shot Brockhampton's score to 62-2.

A change of plan was required, and skipper Besgrove brought himself and Mark Hooper on to bowl. This immediately slowed the scoring rate and Dennis was unlucky not to catch Lawson when his splendid effort resulted in him over stepping the boundary.

Both bowlers bowled accurately with Besgrove in particular getting lots of turn

Mason (40) eventually holed out to Hooper, soon followed by Lawson (47) and Walwyn eventually stumped Howells (39).

Keeping the runs down, Besgrove and Hooper bowled to the end, with Hooper picking up a well deserved five wickets with Brock being restricted to 196.

In reply Cox and Walwyn produced their best opening partnership of the season. Scoring at five runs per over, Walwyn (32) did particularly well to continue after receiving a nasty injury to his toe.

At 100-0 Walwyn departed giving Malvern an excellent base to win the game. Cox departed for another excellent 51 and a few jitters crept into the home side. At 159-4 off 34 overs Scott departed unnecessarily run out for 19.

However Walker, Croft and in particular Hooper ensured that the winning total was reached with three wickets and five overs left.

Thanks to Crusader Sports for match sponsorship.