POSITIVE Kidderminster bowled out a side for the first time this season but still had to settle for a Birmingham and District Premier League draw with Walsall.
The upbeat fielding performance from Kidderminster, dismissing their visitors for 198, gave hope for a much-needed win.
But a disappointing batting display left them playing out for the draw at Chester Road and only seven points.
The town are still above the bottom two but WB Dartmouth, who tied with Knowle and Dorridge, are just six points away.
Bottom club Barnt Green were unsurprisingly defeated by comfortable leaders Stratford on Saturday.
As for Kidderminster, they put Walsall into bat on a lifeless pitch and they never really got going.
The home bowlers put them under pressure and the first wicket fell to a run-out from a direct hit with 30 on the board.
The second came from the bowling of Richard Wilkinson with Chris Boroughs safely snapped up by Ted Baylis for the first of his three catches.
There followed a stand of 56 between Ian Radford and Richard Mills until Mandeep Singh was brought into the attack.
Singh removed both batsmen in two overs and added two further wickets to finish on 4-51 from 13.5 overs.
He was assisted first by Mark Sellek (1-27 from 12 overs) and then Baylis who wrapped up the tail with 3-40.
Kidderminster suffered a massive blow at the beginning of their innings when captain Mark Mansell had to retire hurt after only five overs with 11 on the board.
Without him and the prolific scoring of James Pipe, again on county duty, the rest of the side struggled even more than their opponents.
The top five batsmen could only muster 30 runs between them.
At 56-5 after 28 overs, relief came in the form of Stephen Ralph and Baylis, who provided stability and more than doubled the score between them in the next 15 overs.
Baylis finally fell for 23 with the score on 117 and Ralph was joined by Rob Symonds who justified his promotion from number 11 by scoring a positive 18.
He was trapped lbw to Paul Wicker, the pick of the Walsall bowlers, who took 4-40 from 23 overs.
It was left to Ralph (47no) and Paul Vinas (4no) to play out the remaining overs for the draw.
Walsall 198, Kidderminster 150-7.
Kidderminster seconds lost to leaders Walsall.
Walsall 150-3, Kidderminster 148 (M Derrick 51).
Fixtures, Saturday: 1sts v Old Hill (1pm), Old Hill v 2nds (1.30pm), 3rds v Hanley Castle A & Upton (2pm).
Fixtures, Sunday: 1sts v Redditch (2pm), Redditch v 2nds (2pm), Worcestershire Board v Shropshire Board (11am, Chester Road). Fixture,Tuesday: Worcestershire 2nds v Gloucestershire 2nds (11am, Chester Road, four-day game).
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