THE best efforts of teenage vice-captain Jack Kitchen were not enough to stave off defeat for Knighton-on-Teme in their Marches League Division Two clash with Marden.

The 19-year-old did the business with both bat and ball, but Knighton came up short in chasing Marden’s imposing 235-7 on a prime batting wicket.

Marden built their innings around the 101 from opener Sam Pratley, with Kitchen finishing with 4-43 after taking two wickets in the final over of the innings.

Knighton knew they need a solid start to have any hope but they suffered an early blow when prolific skipper Matt James was soon back in the pavilion, caught at mid-off for four.

Kitchen took over to make a solid 52 and Knighton were up with the run rate for a long time. But wickets fell around him and Knighton were eventually dismissed for 174.

Club spokesman Dave Pullen admitted: “It was a below par performance.

"Usually 160 or 170 is a winning score on our pitch but we thought that if they could score 235 so could we.

"In the event we weren’t up to it.”

Richard Powell hit the spot to bowl Bishop’s Castle to a resounding victory over Cae Glas in Division Two of the Shropshire County League.

Powell’s away swing proved virtually unplayable as he returned memorable figures of 13-8-12-5 as Cae Glas were skittled out for 78 in reply to Bishop’s 164-8.

Teenager Ben Poulton led the way with the bat for Bishop’s, hitting 49 as opener Richard Fifield played an anchor role with a resolute 29.

But Cae Glas were never given a sniff of getting anywhere near that total, with Simon Palmer (2-30) softening them up for medium pacer Powell and Stephen Morris (2-5) to do the rest.

Skipper Tom Moulder said: “It was a difficult pitch to bat on but Richard Fifield held the innings together and Ben Poulton batted brilliantly. We then bowled well and took some good catches too.”

Adam Groom did his best to keep Church Stretton in with a fighting chance against Welshpool in the same division.

Stretton were pegged back to a modest 137-7 off 40 overs, with opener Rob Whittall (30), James Evans (24 not out) and Tomas Quraishi (22 not out) all chipping in, the latter pair adding an unbroken 42 for the eighth wicket.

Groom then took three wickets to ask a few questions of the Welsh side’s early batting but in the end they steadied the ship to sail in on 141-6.