TENBURY Wells CC skipper Rob Farrar admitted it was nice to finish an ‘up and down season’ on a high with a comfortable six-wicket win over Hallow Taverners.

Farrar’s men only finished ninth in Worcestershire League Division Four despite winning 40 per cent of their games – nine out of 22 – and the captain felt the table was slightly unreflective.

He said: “It’s been an up and down season. We had our first game called off and we had to concede against West Malvern when we didn’t have enough players available because England were playing in the World Cup quarter-final.

“There are only certain players who can play every week and I didn’t ever feel like I had my strongest side together for a game.

“We couldn’t get a full-strength side out and that’s what perhaps let us down a little bit.

“But the division was very strong this year with good teams coming down and the restructure of the league – and we didn’t feel out of place.

“Most games we were a batsman or two short or a bowler short – but that’s the way Saturday grassroots cricket goes because people have holidays or family commitments.

“We would have liked to have finished a bit higher in the table but we never felt in any danger of going down.

“It would have been nice to have crept up a few more places but it was good to finish on a positive note.”

Tenbury’s problems in getting a team together were dwarfed by final-day visitors Hallow, who turned up with only eight players.

Nonetheless, Matthew Butler (52) and skipper Dave Pugh (47) gave the away side a fighting chance, helping them post 177.

Zack Yarranton took the key wicket of Butler and finished as Tenbury’s top bowler on figures of 3-21, with skipper Farrar (2-32) not far behind.

Despite Hallow’s efforts with the bat, defending any sort of total was always going to be difficult with eight men in the field and Tenbury ambled to a comfortable six-wicket win inside 35 overs.

Openers Tom Pugh (67) and Chris Giles (38) did the bulk of the work before Rob (9no) and Jamie Farrar (15no) finished the job, aided by a whopping 38 extras from the depleted visitors’ bowling attack.