Tenbury Wells 113 Avoncroft 113

AFTER struggling with the bat and looking likely losers for much of the game, Tenbury kept their cool in a tense finish to claim their second tie of the season in Division 4 of the Worcestershire County League at Penlu.

When the Avoncroft last-wicket pair struck a four to tie the score, and with time on their side, Tenbury’s brave battle to pull the game out of the fire looked to be over.

But then, the Avoncroft batsmen were involved in a bizarre run out.

Wicket-keeper Jay da Costa fumbled a ball from Zack Yarranton and the batsmen attempted to take the winning run.

Da Costa recovered quickly and transferred the ball to Joe Reynolds, who had moved up to the stumps, and the batsman was run out.

Tenbury lost the toss, and their early batsmen struggled on the damp g reen surface ag ainst Dan Elliott (5-48) and Paul Athey (2-24).

With the score on 36-5, Tom Pugh (20) joined Tom Rawlings and the pair were making a good recovery until Pugh needlessly ran himself out.

This setback unsettled Rawlings (34) and he followed soon after.

The innings folded with Ian Car penter joining the attack and claiming the final two wickets in just five balls.

In a short spell before tea, Aaron Mor ris tilted the match back towards the home team by claiming three cheap wickets.

Avoncroft skipper David James (28) and Dan Elliott (25) hit back until Jon Pearson trapped James le g before with the score on 61.

Morris kept chipping away to keep his side in the picture, but when Athey struck Yarranton for a boundary to tie the score their chances looked bleak. Morris finished with 7- 40.

Tenbury 2nd pulled off a fourwicket win at Avoncroft to maintain their big lead at the top of the table.

They bowled the home side out for 118 inside 37 overs and then batted sensibly to get home with four wickets and five overs to spare.

Middle-order batsman Stuar t Walton (42) was the only Avoncroft player to offer much resistance to the Wells attack of Gareth Edwards (3-19), Neil Crump (2-20), Adrian Edwards (2-28) and Jim Yeomans (2- 47).

Dar ren Thompson (16) and Kier Sellars (25) scored well at the top of the innings, leaving Chris (18no) and Steve Giles (17no) to complete the win.