TENBURY’S promotion hopes may have withered but skipper Zack Yarranton insists his side will keep pressing their Worcestershire Division Four rivals over the final two weeks of the season.

And if the Penlu outfit does miss out he wants his players to look back on a successful campaign rather than dwelling on what could have been.

A 71-run defeat of visitors Halesowen 3rd at the weekend still means Tenbury have a chance of securing a top two place but that now rests on either Bromsgrove 3rd or Hanley Castle & Upton slipping up.

“We’re not expecting to go up now as it will depend on one of the others dropping points,” Yarranton admitted with his side 36 points adrift with two games to play.

“But I’ve had a word with the boys, reminding them what a really good season we’ve had. We’ve not lost many games and the two that we had abandoned have cost us – we could have had another 40 points.

“This was our first season in this division and we’ve enjoyed it. Everyone has scored runs and we’ve played some good cricket at some decent grounds.”

Against Halesowen there were heroes with both bat and ball as Tenbury took maximum points.

Batting first, there was an early setback as opener Kier Sellars went for just two. But his opening partner Andy Adams stood firm and made an impressive 113 with decent support from Tom Gloster (24) and Darren Thompson (21no).

By the close the Penlu side were 218-9 and the skipper was delighted with the efforts of his century-maker.

“Shandy [Andy Adams] had a really good innings and everything he tried came off for him,” Yarranton said. “He batted well and Tom Gloster stayed with him for a while, adding some important runs.”

Halesowen were steady in their reply if a little slow but a partnership between John Aston (35) and Pritam Mandair (45) kept the scoreboard turning.

But once Gloster had bowled each of them on his way to 6-41 from his 12.1 overs, the challenge disintegrated as they were all out for 147 as Tenbury wrapped up a convincing win.

Yarranton added: “Tom bowled well and put the ball in the right place. It was his last game for us because he is moving down south with his work so he wanted to go out on a high.

“Once they had lost a few wickets they seemed to lose heart but we still needed to take some decent catches.”

Saturday sees Tenbury head to Alveley before rounding off the season at home to West Malvern the following weekend.

“We will keep going until the end to keep the pressure on the top two,” the skipper added. “You never know what might happen.”