Alcester & Ragley 1st (109-3) beat Norton Lindsey 1st (105 all out) by 7 wickets

Ragley recorded their 3rd win in a row to push them up to 3rd place in the league and just 7 points behind the leaders after a comfortable win away at Norton Lindsey.

Norton won the toss and elected to bat, and they were soon in trouble when opener Ashley was bowled 4th ball of the match by Sam Westwood for 0. Fellow opener Andrews followed shortly afterwards for 7 and then Morgan for 6 both to short balls from Westwood who picked up the 1st 3 wickets. The score at this stage was 33-3 from 11 overs. At this point came Norton’s only partnership of the innings as the only batsmen to reach double figures, Steve Berry and John Maundrell (18), added 38 before Maundrell was well caught in the covers by Reader off the bowling of Adam Warbrick. The innings subsided quickly after this as Steve Capron continued his excellent start to the season by picking up the next 4 wickets to go including that of top scorer Berry clean bowled for 33. Marc Woolley claimed the final 2 wickets in the 1.2 overs he bowled as Norton collapsed to a very disappointing 105 all out in the 34th over. The pick of the bowlers was Capron who finished with 4-25, although Westwood bowled well to claim 3-20.

Ragley started well in reply to the modest victory target as openers Woolley and Warbrick raced to 24 in 4 overs as Ragley looked to finish the game in a hurry. Unfortunately at this point Warbrick hit a full toss to cover and was well caught off the bowling of Webber for 19. Ragley continued to work the ball around well until Woolley was next out lbw to Innes for 13. Ben Lee and Lewis Clark took the score on to 70, when the former was out for 15. At this point Clark took control as he maintained the same form that had seen him score 96 not out in his previous game. He took Ragley to the brink of victory with his excellent 46 not out, and it was left to Michael Coombs to score the winning runs as he stroked Dewar for 4 to the long on boundary to secure victory in the 26th over of the innings. Ragley entertain 2nd place Ashton under Hill at Ragley Park next week.