Worcestershire Cricket Board

The highlight of the week's matches was in produced in O.V.'s division 2 battle with Avoncroft. Azmat Riaz's innings of 62 was as good as it was unexpected. For some years there have been signs of a decent indoor player which till now had not been realised. The best innings of the season so far and by far, showed excellent technique, timing and placement as Riaz scored only one back wall four.  
Elsewhere the predictability of the first division produced another Nomads 'B' win, Worcester turned out a decent side with a full compliment for much of the game and won, whilst a weakened Cutnall Green side and Bromsgrove lost again. In division 2, if West Malvern's line-up could be described as 'different' and their loss to Rushwick 'anticipated', the result of a  fine match between Old Vigornians and Avoncroft was always in doubt and garnished with Azmat Riaz's superb innings. It's nice when that happens.

Division 1

Worcester (119-1) beat Bromsgrove (66 all out) by 53 runs

Worcester, starting with a man short batted first and got off to a slow start. Clive Chadhani spent much off his knock trying and failing to destroy the back wall and partner Ryan d'Oliveira looked out of sorts. However no disasters in the first 5 overs produced 37 and as Chadhani (27 n.o.) retired in the 6th, 20 runs came off the over and at half way 57 was a good platform. Ryan d'Oliveria (28 n.o.) retired in the 9th over and while Sean d'Oliveira (26 n.o.) continued with some nice touches, he spent much of his time spectating and the launch failed to arrive. Bromsgrove had one success, a run out in a generally disappointing fielding display.  Considering Worcester had so many wickets to spare, the total of 119 was less than might be expected but was more than Bromsgrove had so far made themselves this season. Once again Bromsgrove, in spite of losing an early run out, had a reasonable start with Lewis Cordes (25) and David Collins (22) but thereafter produced another spectacular collapse losing five wickets in 8 balls.

Worcester Nomads 'B' (155-3) beat Cutnall Green (108 all out)

Nomads 'B' produced a powerful batting display, inspired by openers Andy Leach (53 n.o.) and Matt Humphries (53 not out), supported by Paul Gardner (30 not out) to top the magical 150.  Leach had retired by the third over leaving Gardner with Humphries to push on to 73-1 by half way. Humphries retirement brought a temporary halt in the run fest as Cutnall Green had some success, reducing Nomads to 80-3 in the 8th. Gardner retired and for the Green this had the unfortunate effect of bringing the openers back together who scored 67 in the last 4 overs, Andy Leach retiring for a second time after just 9 balls. Such scores are not often chased successfully, and this season there have been few chasing-side wins. Cutnall Green miss skipper Matt Harris's contribution with the ball, but he is still effective with the bat. He was last man standing, unnecessarily run out on 44 in the 10th over after the game was all but over. Neil Evans (34) was other main contributor but seemed perpetually confused about when to run and when not. Cutnall Green had been in the game until the 8th over when they were equal with Nomads score at the same point. 67 in the last four was beyond them and Nomads were so much more effective in the field that poor calling was punished each time.

Umpires - Gary Gough and Barrie Rees. Next matches 12th February; Droitwich 'A' v Bewdley & Nomads 'A' v WRGS

Division 2

West Malvern (80-5) lost to Rushwick (81-0) by 6 wickets

A pale shadow of their previous years' teams who chased down totals over 140, this was a hugely disappointing batting effort from West Malvern. Pete O'Connell can be excepted having scored 28 in under 3 overs, retired and on returning was bowled first ball. 23 of the rest came from wides. Ian Turner bowled well as always and returned flattering figures of 3-18. James Marsh looked too quick for the West Malvern bats. With the bookies having shut up shop, Rushwick completed the task of scoring 81 without loss, although having scored 51 in 5 overs (Clive Colley 25 not out and Ian Turner 26 not out) they contrived to make a meal of the other 30, taking a further 5 overs.

Avoncroft (125-4) lost to Old Vigornians (126-5) by 1 wicket

A well contested game played in excellent spirit began with Avoncroft posting a decent total courtesy of Mark Whitehead (21) Dave Charlton (24) Paul Athey (25 n.o.) and Dan Elliott (13 n.o.) Stuart Bailey was the most economic O.V.'s bowler with 0-16 in his three overs. Avoncroft scored steadily throughout their innings without ever being in charge until the last over scoring off every ball to add 18 and set O.Vs a challenge, which in recent years they have usually failed to meet.
O.V.s began with Andy Bell being completely beaten for pace and bowled by Dave Charlton. Osman Fiaz (9) looked comfortable however as he was joined by Azmat Fiaz. Dan Elliott suffered to the tune of 18 in his first over and 13 in his second while Dave Charlton's pace did for O. Fiaz who mistimed and spooned a catch to Paul Athey in his second over which nevertheless yielded 12 as Stuart Bailey (15)) joined Riaz. Changes were needed and employed by Avoncroft as O.V.s took 14 off Ben Warwick to bring them to 62 off 5, and well ahead of the rate. Mark Whitehead's introduction of really slow left arm did the trick. Bailey missed the first one to be given LBW and only 4 came off the over.  Riaz had been using the pace of the quicker bowlers to such effect in placing the ball neatly in the arc from 3rd man to cover, but the reduction in pace came as a shock. Paul Athey joined in for the 7th over as Riaz retired, and yielded only 8, and Whitehead's second over went for just 5. O.V.s run rate had fallen drastically and at 79-3 were now behind Avoncroft for the first time. Tail-ender Ahsan Fiaz had obligingly run himself out to bring back Azmat Riaz and runs began to flow again. James Bader (14) combined with Riaz to take 23 from overs 9 & 10 until run out. Bader remained to run with Riaz as he scored with ease off every ball in the 11th against an off-side field, leaving only 7 needed for Charlton's final over. The win by the one wicket of Azmat Riaz came with 2 balls to spare leaving him unbeaten on 62 without a chance given.

Umpires - Rob Murphy and Barrie Rees. Next matches 13th February;  Nomads 'C' v Malvern & Droitwich 'B' v Martley