Willey 169-9 Bishop’s Castle 170-3.

BISHOP’S Castle gained a comfortable seven-wicket win at Willey to retain the leadership of Division 2 of the FBC Manby Bowdler Shropshire County League.

Simon Palmer led the way, taking 4-43, when they restricted the home side to a modest 169-9.

Rhys Davies (40) and Adam Williams (42) helped set up the winning position, and Andrew Lewis saw Bishop’s home with an unbeaten 66, and two overs to spare.

l Local rivals Church Stretton are now Castle’s main rivals after beating joint second-placed Condover by six wickets away from home.

The home side made 152-8 batting first and Stretton timed their run-chase to perfection, winning with nine balls to spare and only four wickets down.

Charlie Haylett (40) and Garrett (30) scored the bulk of the Condover runs, with Ed Smith (3-56), Martin Nichols (2-18) and Ben Nichols (2-5) taking the wickets for Church Stretton.

Peter Lee (37), Alan Crump (20) and Jake Nichols (28) gave the visitors a solid start to their innings. Ben Nichols started slowly but increased the tempo during the latter part of his innings to finish up unbeaten on 43 when victory came up in the 39th over.

l These are heady days for Bishop’s Castle whose second-team consolidating their position at the top of Division 7 with an easy five-wicket win over Prees at the Manor Ground.

They bowled Prees out for 82 in 26.5 overs and knocked the runs off in one over fewer.

Ryan Davies and Tom Moulder took a wicket apiece, but it was the introduction of Paul Moulder (4-9) and Michael Davies (3-20) which tore the Prees innings apart.

Castle lost wickets to Phil Richards and Chandler but Tom Moulder (29) and Andy Murray (31) saw them home.