THE Crusader Worcestershire County Cricket League team, led by Steve Walsh of Droitwich Spa, were again victors over Warwickshire on a fine Wednesday afternoon that threatened but did not deliver much rain.

After being put into bat on a soft pitch, the Bromyard openers Ashley Bullock and Oliver Bailey (34) added 54 runs in 13 overs. Useful additional contributions, before and after a short break for rain, were made by Kevin Golder of Barnards Green (21) and Damon Gariff of Droitwich (27), which saw the score stand at 118-5 after 34 overs of the scheduled 44 (10 lost to rain).

The tempo of the innings was then dramatically increased as Danny Rees of Worcester Nomads scored 38 in a frenetic seven overs in which he and Paul Pickering of Romsley and Hunnington (65) added 61 runs for the sixth wicket.

Pickering continued to plunder, taking 20 off the first four balls of the penultimate over and hoisting the total to a very respectable 235 all out. For Warwickshire, A Hussain took 3-35 and R Rice 3-33.

When Warwickshire batted they found Gariff (1-20 in five) and Oliver Hill of Stourbridge (1-16 in six overs) difficult to dominate and wickets fell steadily to Neville Mason of Redditch (2-40 in nine overs) and Ben Schiffmann, Worcester Nomads who had the best figures of 3-16 in seven overs.

Finally, in the 36th over, Jon Summers of Astwood Bank, wrapped up the innings with 2-14 from eight overs to seal victory by 125 runs as Warwick-shire totalled 110 with only Steve Marillier (23) and Steve Swaffield (21) getting past 20.