DROITWICH’S promising start to the Worcestershire League Division One season came to an abrupt end as they lost by 61 runs to Pershore.

Pershore skipper Ciaran Sanders, chose to bat and may have regretted his decision as his side lost their first three wickets for just 21 runs.

Sanders (63) and Lee Wilks (71) rebuilt the Pershore innings to take them to 160-5 with a stand of 115 in 23 overs.

Pershore finished on 210-9 and Mike Rogers finished with tidy figures of 4-50 from 17 overs with Martin Woodward picking up 3-61 from 12.

In their reply, Droitwich got away to a fine start with an opening stand of 99 from the first 22 overs. Sanders (6-44) then turned to the all-spin attack of himself and Wilks.

When both of the Spa openers, Jake Young (56) and Neil Wright (36) were removed, the Droitwich line-up had little answer as eight wickets tumbled in adding just 40 runs.

A rearguard action by Andrew Fletcher and Martin Woodward looked at one stage as if they may salvage something from the match.

However, when Karl Goddard was adjudged lbw, Spa were nine down with little chance of saving the game.

Luke Dalley came back into the fold to wrap up the victory and give Pershore an unlikely success.