BARNARDS Green continued their winning start in Birmingham and District Premier League Division One with a five-wicket win at Attock.

Attock won the toss and chose to bat and Jon Dovey made an early breakthrough as Masood (6) was caught by Phil Harris at short mid-off.

This brought Attock’s in-form captain R Khan to the crease. He started aggressively, rushing to a run-a-ball 25 before Dovey had him caught by a diving Andy Ford at second slip.

Attock were 38-2 as Alex Hepburn and Phil Harris joined the attack.

Opener A Mahmood was playing cautiously as he and new batsmen MQ Khan started to build a partnership. Hepburn struck next, trapping Khan lbw for 15.

In a double change to spin, Andy Ford and George Rhodes came on to bowl and immediately stifled the flow of runs with a number of maidens. Frustration finally told as S Mahmood attempted to hit Ford over the top to be caught by Andy Curtis at long-off for 13.

With both spinners bowling well, Attock were struggling on 104-4.

Rhodes got just reward as Ford took a low catch at slip to dismiss Nadeem for just two.

A Mahmood could only watch two more partners come and go courtesy of Ford.

Ahmad (10) was caught and bowled and J Khan (7) chipped one up to Hepburn at silly mid-off.

With Attock on 133-7, A Mahmood was approaching a hard-earned half-century as Ford grabbed his fourth and most important wicket, clean bowling him for 49.

The Attock innings crumbled.

Rhodes took his second wicket as Ali (1) was caught by Nathan Newport in the covers.

Harris returned to end the innings as Ford took his third catch.

Attock were bowled out for 146 with Ford finishing with 4-20.

Green openers Rhodes and Curtis had 15 overs to face before the tea interval.

The innings got off to the worst start possible as Curtis (1) nicked one to keeper Nadeem off Anwar.

Hepburn and Rhodes began to build a partnership, despite quick bowling from Anwar, with a straight drive from Hepburn bringing up the 50 in the 11th over.

As the score mounted, Attock made bowling changes to try to make the breakthrough.

At tea, Green had reached 86-1.

Three balls after tea, Rhodes (25) fell lbw as one from J Khan kept extremely low and hit him on the boot, which brought Harris to the crease.

In the 18th over, Green passed 100 and later that same over Hepburn reached his half-century with a lofted drive for four.

Just as Green seemed to be cruising to a straightforward win, Anwar returned to the attack with devastating effect.

He bowled Harris for nine then did the same to Nathan Newport and Ford to give him a hat-trick.

For the second week in a row, a mid-order collapse caused the run chase to wobble.

Jamie Tapper came in at six with Green just 42 runs short of victory on 105-5.

Both batsmen played the dangerous Anwar watchfully but the Attock attack held little other threat.

The innings progressed with no more incident and Hepburn finished the game with a four and a six.

Green ended on 150-5 with Tapper 12 not out and Hepburn 81no, including 12 fours and a six. The 20 points mean Green sit joint top of the table and will travel to Bromsgrove on Saturday (noon).

Green second XI batted first against Sutton Coldfield and made 156 all out with Elliot Hennessy top-scoring with 64.

The visitors raced to victory with Tom Eustace finishing 77no.

The Malvern side’s third XI were frustrated by Five Ways Old Edwardians.

Green made 270 with captain Jez Clarke again in the runs with 86 supported by Chris Smedley (44) and Kev Golder (36).

In reply, Five Ways were 186-7 to give Green a 10-point winning draw with Smedley (3-28) the pick of the bowlers.

The fourths hosted Five Ways Old Edwardians seconds and were bowled out for 166 as Dick Brown top-scored with 43.

Five Ways passed the total with just two wickets down taken by Ben Alamutu.