WORCESTER NOMADS v DROITWICH

WORCESTER Nomads 1st XI team entertained Droitwich in the Division One of the Worcestershire County League.

In a low-scoring match, Droitwich eventually achieved a comfortable six-wicket win.

Inserted, Nomads quickly lost James Smith and wickets fell steadily after that. Liam O'Driscoll (36) and Paul Gardner (27) put on 50, but both fell to the off-spin of Jono Boult, O'Driscoll to a memorable caught and bowled. A late flurry from the tail took the Nomads' score to 143 all out. Captain Damon Gariff picked up four wickets with his medium pace.

Droitwich started sluggishly against the accuracy of Ben Schiffmann and Geoff Taylor. After 20 overs with the score on 27-3, Nomads looked to be in with a chance of forcing an upset.

However, the two most successful Droitwich bowlers then became the two most successful batsmen when Boult and Gariff came together and with dour defence mixed with occasional aggression, they put on 102 for the 4th wicket and turning the game Droitwich's way.

Boult finally went for a well-constructed 62. Gariff produced a real captain's innings with an undefeated 51.

Tomorrow (Saturday), Nomads, sponsored by Hylton Group and Duncan Fearnley, are away at Astwood Bank.

WORCESTER NOMADS III v AMBLECOTE & WOLLASTON

DESPITE heavy midweek rain threatening the fixture, Nomads and Amblecote managed to play against one another for the second week running in this Division Eight clash.

Nomads once again fielded first and sought to put the visitors under pressure with some accurate bowling. Ryan (20), Bastock (20) and Tsang (23) tried to keep the scoreboard moving, before both fell to 13-year-old Bradley Strain, taking his first senior wickets in a spell of 3-15 from four overs.

Once they had been dismissed Amblecote found they were running out of overs to mount any serious total, and finished well short of a par score, with only 121-7 from their 45 overs. Dave Pearson took 3-16 and Anton Madzarevic 1-14 from 12 overs.

In reply, the hosts looked to get on top of the bowling, and Harding (34) in particular looked to be in good form. The introduction of Flavel (3-20) put the side under some pressure, but Jon Dimond with a quick 20, Clear (15) and Madzarevic (17no) got things back on track.

A couple of late wickets fell but victory was completed by four wickets with 12 overs left.