Alcester & Ragley 1st 210-5 beat Stratford III’s 208-9 by 5 wickets C

Ragley secured their 2nd win in a row with a good batting display away at Stratford. Ragley won the toss and elected to bowl on a very windy day at the FISSC ground in Stratford.

Stratford lost a wicket early on when Martin Glanfield (1) was run out after Paul Dipple hit the stumps direct from mid off. The other opener Richards and captain Steve Lamb then proceeded to add 60 in very good time and Ragley could not seem to stem the flow of runs, until Shaun Quirke was introduced into the attack. He bowled Richards for 46 in his 2nd over, and then had Cootes lbw for 0 in his 3rd over. Meanwhile Lamb had been bowled by Julian Reader for 22 as 3 wickets fell in 3 overs to leave Stratford tittering at 81-4. Quirke continued his miserly spell at one end as the 2 new batsmen, Noble and Russell, scored freely at the other end. They has lifted the score to 160-4 before Tom Morris dismissed both in the same over to swing the advantage back to Ragley. Russell had scored 51 before being bowled by Morris and Noble had made 22. With the fall of these 2 wickets the run rate slowed dramatically in the last 10 overs, and with Morris taking a further 2 wickets to finish with 4-33 Stratford limped in the end to 208-9 when a much larger total looked on the cards at one stage. Quirke’s figures were 2-11 from his 10 overs, which included 7 maidens and really bought Ragley back into the game.

In reply Ragley openers Adam Peachey and Colin Devincentiis tried to take the attack to the inexperienced Stratford opening bowlers. The score had reached 30 in good time before Peachey was bowled for 12 by Grundy. Quirke and Devincentiis then batted very well together before the latter unluckily played on for 30. Ragley were well up with the run rate at this stage and when Dipple joined Quirke this was increased as no Stratford bowler could tie the batsmen down. This was until Lamb came on to bowl his leg spin, and Noble had Dipple caught behind down the leg side for 20. The score at this stage was 111-3. Lamb was tying an end up without getting the wickets Stratford so desperately needed. Quirke passed 50 in the 33rd over and new bat Adam Warbrick really started to get into his stride, these 2 put on 93 for the 4th wicket before Lamb had Quirke adjudged lbw for a chanceless 82 in his last over. Next ball Warbrick went onto score his 1st fifty for the 1st as he guided Ragley home with an over to spare, he finished on 50 not out. Stratford captain Lamb finished with 2-28, and he was the only Stratford bowler to stem the flow of runs from Quirke and Warbrick.