"We're positive about pushing up the table" says Spa vice-captain Davies - The Droitwich Standard

"We're positive about pushing up the table" says Spa vice-captain Davies

Droitwich Editorial 6th Jun, 2019   0

DROITWICH Spa vice-captain Martyn Davies believes it is only a matter of time before his side rise up the Worcestershire County League Division One table, following a 54-run defeat to Hagley which extended their winless streak to four games.

He did, however, stress the need to cut out the same recurring mistakes when going into bat which have proven costly to Spa’s campaign – leaving them joint-bottom of the league at present.

Droitwich are yet to win since their maximum-points victory over Belbroughton at the beginning of May, their only win of the campaign, but were unable to end that run despite starting their innings brightly.

After visitors Hagley finished their innings on 185-8, Spa suffered a tail-end collapse to fall in the 38th over after scoring 131 runs.




Davies hopes that Droitwich’s fortunes will improve away to sixth-placed Burghill, Tillington & Weobley on Saturday (1pm), and expects the two sides to put on an exciting game of cricket.

“It’s always a good game against them, especially with the short boundary,” he said.


“We know each other quite well by this point – we know that if we play well then we’ve got every chance of winning.”

He highlights the return of Phil Thomas this weekend as a huge boost to his side’s chances, and says that the returning captain Max Young – who made only his third appearance in the Hagley defeat, will continue to have an impact.

“We’ve had a bit of an in-out start to the season with players not available, but from this weekend on we’re back to full-strength, bar the only long-term absentee in Ian Cottrill.

“We’re hoping to push on up the table with a few good results, and we’re fairly positive about doing so – having Max back in the team is a big boost for us.”

Davies was very much one of Spa’s key men against Hagley, taking 1-27 and hitting a second-highest score of 33 for Droitwich.

David Stephens took a respectable 3-37, whilst Matt Gurr took two wickets for the same number of runs conceded, but they were unable to prevent Hagley duo Michael Stead (74 n.o) and Paul Morgan (45) from running riot at the crease.

Once Davies was caught by Christiaan (no typo) Levitt from James Russell’s ball, only Paul Bryan in the middle order with 34 could produce any useful end product.

Jonathan Keen was last to go from Will Hymer’s catch from Michael Stead’s bowling to leave Spa on 131.

Nevertheless, Davies insisted that there were positives from the performance.

“Matt Gurr bowled well with a couple of key wickets early on, Paul Bryan dug in for us.

“We fielded pretty well, but the same problems at the bat cropped up for us.”

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