Alcester & Ragley 1st (151-4) beat Moreton in Marsh 1st (147 all out) by 6 wickets C

Ragley eased to their 4th win in 5 games against Moreton on Saturday. Winning the toss Ragley asked Moreton to bat first and after a brief flurry of runs they were soon in trouble as they lost 3 quick wickets to be on 30-3 from 7 overs. Steve Capron claiming 2 of these and Julian Reader the other. However Moreton staged a revival through Tom Peachey and captain Tom Newbould, helped in no small part by Ragley’s catching which continues to let them down this season. They had lifted the score to 90 when Newbould (16) became the first of Marc Woolley’s 4 victims. As wickets tumbled at the other end only Peachey looked capable of lifting Moreton to a respectable total, but when he was stumped after a smart piece of work by Gary Strain off the bowling of Geoff Reader for 49 the innings subsided to 147 as Woolley (4-36) and Capron (3-27) mopped up the tail.

Ragley started cautiously in reply as they were chasing a target of only 148 at only 3 runs an over. Woolley (29) and Strain put on 67 for the 1st wicket before Woolley was caught at long off from the bowling of Newbould. Devincentiis then scored a breezy 31 before he was bowled by Newbould as he tried to play across the line. When he was out only 36 were required from 14 overs and Strain was still there looking solid at the other end on 42 not out. Adam Peachey scored 27 of those remaining runs in very good time including 3 towering sixes over square leg before he was out with only 3 runs required. Paul West hit the winning runs but it was to Strain that Ragley were indebted as he finished on 52 not out holding the innings together throughout. The pick of the Moreton bowlers was young J Newbould who bowled his 10 overs for only 11 runs as he kept the runs down at the beginning of the Ragley innings.