FORMER Tenbury CC skipper Zach Yarranton is not the first cricketer to pinpoint the number of overs played in the club game as the reason many clubs are struggling for consistency, or in some cases to even field a team.

After a weekend which saw GB Liners Marches League sides Cleobury Mortimer and Knighton on Teme unable to fulfil their fixtures – the latter for the second week running – and Corvedale 2nds hosting their Pontesbury counterparts with just ten players, Yarranton voiced a common refrain.

“We are struggling to get the same team out every week,” said Yarranton, who was himself absent for Saturday’s Worcestershire County League Division Four win at Hallow Taverners as he opted to spend an afternoon on the golf course, having skippered Tenbury for two seasons running before this year.

“It’s a long game now and a lot of people have all sorts of commitments. I’m not sure the number of overs necessarily puts people off but it’s hard to get people to commit week in and week out.

“Maybe people are working, or they’ve been working all week and expect to spend their weekends with their family.

“To then be asked to spend 20 weekends all summer playing cricket every Saturday, from 12[pm] ‘til 8[pm] at night is a fair chunk of the weekend, so I think that’s why some clubs are struggling.”

The unsettled nature of Robbie Farrar’s team didn’t pose too many problems at the weekend however, especially with the captain in rampant form as he claimed five wickets for 22 runs during the first innings, with the hosts dismissed for 182, six balls short of their allotted 50 overs at the Hallow Recreation Ground.

With Jack Farrar chipping in to claim another two victims for just 18 runs, the target looked achievable and so it proved for the visitors, who knocked them off for the loss of just four wickets as Tom Pugh hit 50 after opener Andrew Adams had supplied 38 to get the innings off to a steady start.

The result leaves Tenbury nestled in mid-table security, although Yarranton added that is a step back from recent seasons.

“We’re winning some games and losing others,” said the former skipper. “Last year we finished second or third so we’re a bit behind where we have been for the last couple of years, but there’s a couple of new sides [in the division].”

Tenbury visit fellow mid-table outfit West Malvern on Saturday.

Nigel Payne amassed 81 runs on Saturday as Tenbury 2nds won at home in the reverse fixture. Simon Newhill weighed in with 62 as Tenbury posted 278-5 off their overs. In reply, Hallow could muster only 127 but clung on to their final wicket in defeat, with Tenbury’s Johnathan Duce taking two wickets for nine and Ian Taylor claiming two for 12.