HALESOWEN'S form continued to move in the right direction as they inflicted a 26-run defeat on Wolverhampton at Danescourt.

Jamie Harris (60) and Hassan Qaumi (47) were the leading lights as Halesowen were all out for 191 in the 50th over. Wolves opening bowlers Aaron Patel (4 for 36) and Worcestershire’s Adam Finch (3 for 31) bowled terrific spells for Wolverhampton but, apart from 51 from Will Nield, their batsmen fell short after a superb opening spell from Eddie Rhodes. Rhodes took three wickets early on and the last wicket to fall as he returned the excellent figures of 4 for 19 to see Hales bow out winners in a tense finale.

The seconds however slipped ominously into the bottom three of Division 2 having now lost four consecutive matches in a row and will need to arrest the decline against fellow relegation strugglers Barlestree 1st XI next week. Ombersley were this weeks victors over Hales who plummeted from 50-1 to 118 all out with only Harry Baddams' (38) showing any form with the bat as they were bundled out for another low score.

The third team fared little better also bowled out for 119 chasing 216 against a grooved Bromsgrove 3rd XI in Division 4. Despite Chris Jones (4-36) the threes could not stem the tide in the field of the Bromsgrove hard-hitters. In reply Richard Cox (68) held the innings together until the final three overs where Broms prevailed thanks to Chris Burford (6-16).

Finally the 4th team maintained their position in the top three with a resounding victory over Pershore 3rd XI at Earls High School. Dismissing Pershore for a meagre 27 thanks to Eze Felis (4-3) and Steve Jacques (3-11) they romped home by 6 wickets with some ease.

The women’s team also maintained their position at the top of the Womens League Div 2 with a with a 1 run win over Droitwich CC. Totting up 104 thanks to Sarah Williams (31) they restricted Droitwich to 103-4 in their allotted overs including some outstanding fielding under pressure and with two matches to play only Alvechurch can realistically catch them now.

Commenting on the weekend, captain Alexei Kervezee said: "The priority for the remaining four matches is to ensure a strong finish for the 1s, 2s, 4s and women's XI as we need the whole club to finish well and maintain or improve their status for the 2020 season.

"As for the first XI it was a very good win with only 10 men fielding (Qaumi finger injury) and Eddie was back to his best. He had a good showing for Shropshire a week ago in the minor counties champs and he has carried that in to his game with us now. Unfortunately we now lose Quami, Akram and Lockley (both unavailable) for the Ombersley game next week which is a blow when all the teams need to dig-in. I guess its that time of the year when all clubs face these difficulties and just depends how many of our players are prepared to battle through and take the opportunities. We will see."