Elmley Castle (226-9) beat Alcester & Ragley 1st (170 all out) by 56 runsD

Ragley succumbed to defeat at league leaders Elmley despite looking good in their pursuit of 227 to win.

Ragley won the toss and inserted Elmley on a damp wicket. They bowled well in the helpful conditions for the first 20 overs with Elmley reduced to 60-3 as Steve Capron, Julian Reader and Marc Woolley claimed a wicket apiece. This bought danger man Neil Cooper to the crease and he steadied the innings in partnership with Bailey as they scored at a good rate against some loose bowling from Ragley. They had lifted the score to 140-3 when Woolley was introduced back into the attack and had Cooper lbw in his return over for 43. He was replaced at the crease by Simon Cooper who continued the onslaught scoring a quick fire 35, including 2 huge sixes, before he was well caught at long on by Morris off the bowling of Warbrick. Bailey followed soon after for 41 off the bowling of Steve Capron who bowled well without much reward in his 2nd spell. Some late hitting by the lower order who took advantage of the short boundary to plunder several sixes saw Elmley post a more than respectable score of 226-9, with several late wickets being taken by Woolley as the batsmen perished to big shots. Woolley finished with 4-41 and Warbrick claimed 2-31, although the most economical bowler was Reader who finished with 1-26 from 10 overs and would have had more wickets if luck had gone his way.  

In reply Ragley openers Gary Strain and Ben Lee began very cautiously against the opening bowling of Bailey and Webb, scoring at just over a run an over as the score reached 10 from 8 overs. At this stage Lee looked to increase the run rate as he hit Webb for consecutive sixes and took 16 from the over. Strain then joined in and the 50 was bought up in the 14th over as the bowlers lost their line and length against some more aggressive batting. Simon Cooper was introduced into the attack but runs continued to flow and the 100 was bought up in the 24th over. The ball after this however Lee was lbw to Simon Cooper for 49. At this stage Ragley were well in the game as they required 127 runs from the final 21 overs with 9 wickets in hand. The rest of the batsmen however succumbed to the bowling of Simon and Neal Cooper who took 6 wickets between them, 4-37 and 2-30 respectively as they ran through the Ragley batting for the 2nd time this season. Once Strain was 5th out for an excellent 66 made with the discomfort of a severe elbow injury, the score was only 130-5 and Ragley were out of the game. The final 5 wickets added 40, and only Woolley(15) and Morris(16) were the other batsmen to get into double figures as Ragley’s batting again subsided, this time from 100-0 to 170 all out. Cawson wrapped the Ragley tail up for Elmley as he took the final 4 wickets for only 10 runs as Elmley ran out winners by 56 runs in the 44th over.