THE Bishop’s Castle seamers hit the spot to bowl their side to a first win of the season in Division Two of the Shropshire County League.

They made light work of a poor Much Wenlock side who were missing a handful of regulars, dismissing the visitors for a miserly 68, and Bishop’s then knocked off the runs for the loss of only one wicket.

Only two Much Wenlock batsmen reached double figures as left-armer Simon Palmer (4-25), Thomas Mulder (3-21) and Jack Perry (2-6 worked their way through the order without too much difficulty.

Richard Fifield (31 not out) and Jonathan Price (18 not out) then completed the formalities after opener Joe McKay had been trapped lbw for 11.

Church Stretton’s Adam Groom had Condover in early trouble with four quick wickets after Stretton won the toss and put their visitors, only for a recovery to see Condover rally to 179 for eight.

Groom finished with 5-29, hitting the stumps of all his five victims, and Church Stretton laboured to 144 for nine in reply, Saif Khalid making 31.

Corvedale were on the receiving end of a run blitz from Chelmarsh’s Ben Lewis in Division Three. He blasted a brilliant 122 not out off only 65 balls (nine sixes and ten fours) as Corvedale were put to the sword, Dave Bannister backing him up with 56 off 41 balls as the home side piled up a formidable 299-6 off 40 overs.

In reply Corvedale were soon in damage limitation mode and they limped to the close on 147 for seven, opener Nathan Portlock topscoring with 40.

Ludlow 3rd owed their eight-wicket win over Oswestry 3rd in to some solid early-order batting.

They were chasing 193 to win after restricting Oswestry to 192-8 off 40 overs, and cruised home in 29 overs thanks to Rob Genner (59), skipper Tom Prince (53 not out) and Kev Boulton (42).

Jack Hints was the match-winner for Bishop’s Castle 2nd as they saw off Oswestry 4th in Reserves Division Three.

Hints blasted 78 of Bishop’s 140 all out and then produced key figures of four for six as Oswestry came up well short on 98 all out.

Cleobury Mortimer’s Worcestershire League Division Three visit to Bartestree and Lugwardine ended in a 77-run defeat.

Bartestree made runs-scoring look easy in posting a 263-6 total off 50 overs, and Cleobury were always behind the clock in reply.

Ben Griffiths (49) and Sam Evans (20) shared a second-wicket partnership of 57 but 59-1 then fell away to 118-8.

Only some late hitting from Luke Baldwin, who crashed seven fours in his defiant 43, delayed the inevitable.

Baldwin was last man out with the Cleobury total on 186.

"It's a batsman's wicket at Bartestree and we should have taken our chances in the field," said Griffiths.

"We dropped their top five batsmen, you can't afford to do that against a team like that.

"I think if we had taken our catches, we could have got them below 200 and had a good chance of winning.

"We also didn't bat very well and could have done with James Manley staying in.

"If we had our full batting side, we would have been a lot closer than what we were."

Cleobury Mortimer 2nd were beaten by 74 runs by Halesowen 4th. Raqeeb Khan carried his bat for an unbeaten 83 and Riaz Khan made 57 not out towards Halesowen’s 237 for three, and Cleobury 2nd were kept down to 163 for nine. Jared Reid kept the innings together with 65 and opener Grant Carbines made 34.

In the Division Two of the Marches League, Knighton on Teme banked their first victory of the season with a five-wicket triumph at Presteigne.

Presteigne opener James Bray saw out his side’s 188 for six from start to finish, ending on 115 not out, with part-time Knighton bowler Greg Powell picking up five wickets.

Knighton then set off like an express train, and had 100 on the board in only 14 overs after some aggressive hitting from skipper Matt James (85) and makeshift opener John Griffiths (23).

Things slowed after that as wickets were lost but Sam Siviter (31 not out) and John Humphries (28 not out) came together to see Knighton home.