Alcester & Ragley 1st 144 – 3 beat Norton Lindsey 1st 141 all out by 7 wickets C

Ragley recorded their 1st win of the league season at the 3rd attempt with this emphatic victory away at Norton Lindsey.

Norton won the toss and surprisingly elected to bat first on a cold damp day. Opening bowlers Marc Woolley and Steve Capron made the most of the helpful bowling conditions as they reduced Norton to 48-4 after the first 20 overs. Woolley finishing with 2-21 and Capron equally as impressive with 2-23. Norton could have been in deeper trouble than they were as Ragley conspired to drop 4 catches in the early exchanges. Change bowlers Lewis Clark and Julian Reader then sank Norton further into the mire as they claimed 3 quick wickets. Clark’s first was a spectacular caught and bowled attempt in his first over, followed by a equally good catch by Tom Morris in the deep in his next over to dismiss captain Andy Dewar for a hard grafting 16 in 23 overs as Ragley at last found their catching form. This left Norton tittering at 56-7 and bought together Mcinnes and Ashley, who set about consolidating the innings and hitting the rare loose balls to the boundary. They hoisted the score to 130 before Ashley was caught for 29 off the bowling of Reader. Young Curtis Clark (2-7) was then introduced into the attack and he bowled very tightly at a good pace to claim the last 2 wickets in quick time and wrap the innings up for 141. Mcinnes was left not out for a fine 48 to give his side something to defend.

In reply openers Gary Strain and Colin Devincentiis stood firm against some fine early bowling from Warner and Bliwert, and although the run rate was slow it was imperative that wickets were not lost early on. As they survived this runs became a bit easier to come by, but Strain was caught by a fine catch just inside the square leg boundary for 29 to leave the score at 71-1. Lewis Clark came in and scored a valuable 19 in good time but it was left to Devincentiis to grind his way to a superb 62 not out and see Ragley home. He fittingly scored the winnings runs with a boundary from the impressive bowling of Dewar (2-25) to leave Ragley victorious by 7 wickets with 8 overs to spare.