A CRUCIAL seventh-wicket stand between Tom Rawlings and Mark Yarranton earned Tenbury a potentially title-defining win over Old Elizabethans.

The Worcestershire County League Division Five leaders were pushed all the way by a home side who started the day in second place.

Once again Zack Yarranton won the toss and elected to bowl first as he had done in last week’s success over Hallow.

The skipper then set about justifying that decision by reducing the hosts to 50-5 removing four of the top order in a burst of 4-17 which put Tenbury well in control.

But OEs fought back with Nick Pullan making 75 and David Singleton 27, but when both were run out within three runs of each other it meant that a score which could have started pushing towards 200 ended up being 166 all out and more than three overs had been wasted.

Aaron Morris and Andrew Adams have provided a solid foundation for most of the season but when Tenbury replied neither could get the start that was needed, Morris falling to David Harris (3-19) and Adams dismissed cheaply by David Donaldson.

The wickets continued to tumble as Damien Yeomans, Kier Sellars and wicketkeeper David Hunt were soon back in the hutch.

When Zack Yarranton went for just a couple the home side were sniffing an unlikely win but they hadn’t counted on Rawlings and Mark Yarranton.

Rawlings was there at the close with 59 while his partner remained unbeaten on 44 as in the end the visitors won with plenty to spare, crossing the winning line with just under 10 overs to spare.

Tenbury Wells 2nd could not repeat the efforts of their teammates as they were humbled by eight wickets against OE 2nd.

It looked like a decent score might be on the cards when opener Ben Thompson’s 52 got them heading in the right direction, along with Gareth Edwards 26, but when the latter was run out by Andy Mitchell and Preejith Vatakkeduth (3-28) prized out Thompson, it was a setback they never really recovered from.

In fact Alfie Watts (21) coming in at five was the only other batsman to get to double figures and Mitchell finished with 4-32 as Tenbury were dismissed for 166.

It was a target which the visitors made light work of as openers Martin Bolton (35) and Mitchell (80) pushed them to the brink of victory, and in fact only one wicket fell to a bowler, Watts finally getting rid of Mitchell caught by Chris Giles, while Watts also played a part in the run out of Bolton.

But it made little difference to the outcome as OEs got the winning runs off the last ball of the 32nd over.