DROITWICH relinquished second spot in Division One of the Worcestershire County League after being well beaten by arch rivals Bewdley.
A 58-run victory over Burghill & Tillington saw Spa overtake Worcester Nomads last week, but this time they lost by the same margin and slumped back to third place.
Having won the toss, skipper Martyn Davies decided to bowl first, but Bewdley were quick out of the blocks – the experienced Simon Mauger being particularly aggressive.
Following his dismissal for a quick-fire 40, Spa came back into the game, but none of their bowlers produced a really tight spell. Opener Paul Beard scored a fine 96 and the home side looked destined for a score of 300 before a lull in proceedings and some fine Spa fielding kept the score down to 275-8 from 50 overs. Davies was Droitwich’s most successful bowler, with his ten overs yielding 3-37.
In reply, the visitors produced an excellent opening stand for the second successive week – the Young brothers putting on 90 in 21 overs before Jake was dismissed for a steady 24.
Max Young was playing some beautiful shots and again looked destined for a century but was deceived by spinner Jack Mills and bowled for 72.
With Connor Grant dismissed cheaply Spa had again lost a cluster of wickets, leaving Paul Bryan and David Lane to re-build. The two middle order batsmen began to build a partnership that gave Spa a chance of getting near the Bewdley total. But following the pair’s dismissals for 27 and 33 respectively, Droitwich’s run chase looked doomed.
A few lusty blows near the end took Spa score up to 217-9, but their bowling on the day was not good enough on a wicket which was not easy to bat on.
Meanwhile, Droitwich Seconds kept up their chase for promotion with a straightforward victory over neighbours Avoncroft.
On a testing wicket, opener Rhys John excelled for Spa carrying his bat for 96 not out in a total of 226-5.
Avoncroft never recovered from a poor start & were dismissed for 103, with Martin Woodhead and Craig Hunt sharing seven wickets.
