FIREMEN on call, a postman running late and stubborn bails combined to make Tenbury’s opening game in Worcestershire Division Four one to forget.

The Division Five champions lost by four wickets to visitors Hanley Castle & Upton on a day that, according to skipper Zack Yarranton, went from bad to worse.

“There was a road accident that saw two of the lads called out and they then had to attend a fire somewhere else,” the Tenbury captain explained.

“I then had a text from one of the others saying he was running late on his post round leaving me to start with eight players. Luckily I won the toss so we were able to bat – we didn’t have a lot of choice!”

Openers Andy Adams and Keir Sellars were soon on their way back to the clubhouse before Paul Higgins and Tom Pugh started to add some runs.

But when Higgins was trapped lbw for 34 it wasn’t long before Pugh was also dismissed, bowled for 46 – one of six wickets for Hanley’s Tony Hutchings (6-20).

Yarranton (14) was the only other batsman to reach double figures before falling to a questionable lbw decision as Tenbury were dismissed for 147.

“It wasn’t a good total but I managed to take an early couple of wickets and it looked as though we might have a chance,” the captain added.

“Barton Matthews then came in for them and with my second ball I clipped his off stump only for the bail not to move. We all heard it and even the batsman turned around and lifted it off just to make sure it wasn’t glued down!

“It’s something I’ve never seen at this level before, normally a gust of wind will blow the bails off. I think we then realised it wasn’t to be our day as the batsman went on to score 33.”

Some decent bowling from Jack Farrar earned him a couple of wickets (2-20) while Robbie Farrar kept things tight at the other end, taking 2-47 from his 17 overs. Yarranton (2-52) saw a couple of chances go begging as the visitors reached 150-6 to take the honours.

Tenbury head to Old Elizabethans 3rd on Saturday.

An excellent knock of 51 from opener Chris Giles wasn’t enough to stop Tenbury 2nd from suffering a two-wicket defeat at Hanley Castle & Upton 2nd.

Put into bat, the visitors had the scoreboard ticking over but a middle order collapse resulted in Tenbury being dismissed for 186 in the 38th over.

Some impressive bowling from Darren Ingram (3-16) and Jamie Farrar (2-32) kept Hanley pegged back until Mark Dollachin’s 62 steered the home side over the line as they reached 187-8.