Wasim Jaffer with 106

Barnt Green extended their lead at the top of the Premier Division table to 19 points after a five wicket victory at Leamington Spa, while second placed Himley were involved in a close-fought draw with their nearest neighbours Wolverhampton. After winning the toss and choosing to bat, Leamington closed their innings on 230 for five with Tom Lewis registering 77 and Michael Balac adding 44. Barnt Green’s reply was given a good start by Nathan Newport (46) and finished off with an unbroken sixth wicket partnership between Nick Powell (49 not out) and Dougie Brown (38 not out). A highlight for Leamington was the debut performance of 15 years old Darrel Williams who took 1 for 52 in 13 overs. At Wolverhampton, former Indian Test batsman Wasim Jaffer (106) stroked his third century of the season for Himley and skipper Stuart Wedge scored 41 in a total of 221 for eight. Worcestershire’s Chris Russell took 4 for 43 for Wolverhampton who finished seven runs short of victory with two wickets standing after Dan Bowyer made 56 and Staffordshire’s Aaron Jeavons scored 47. Shafiq Ahmed took 4 for 72 to put a brake on the Wolverhampton innings and keep Himley within sight of the leaders.

The battle between third and fourth placed Wellington and Knowle & Dorridge was a run-laden affair and a winning draw to K & D saw them leap-frog Wellington who slip to fourth place after they finished 12 runs short of the visitors total of 281 for eight. Justin Hemming (53), Jamie Spires (45 not out) and Richard Johnson (44) were the leading batsmen for K & D with Simon Khomari taking 3 for 36 for Wellington. Khomari hit 44 as Wellington responded and 59 from Bilal Shafayat plus a quickfire effort from Martin Delaney (59) nearly pulled off a famous victory for the home side. Shrewsbury scored 248 for nine against West Bromwich Dartmouth thanks to Steven Leach (82) and Rob Foster (77) with Imran Khan returning impressive figures of 6 for 43. Dartmouth slipped to 55 for five but an unbroken sixth wicket stand of 104 between Guriq Randhawa (69 not out) and Shaun Roberts (38 not out) kept Shrewsbury at bay and the match finished in a tame draw. Walsall made a remarkable recovery from 81 for eight to earn a two wicket success over Kidderminster Victoria with three balls remaining thanks to an undefeated stand of 74 between Alex McChrisite (74 not out) and Tom Freeman (23 not out). Earlier, Paul Wicker had taken 5 for 38 to restrict Kiddi to 152 for nine, Chris Pyke top scoring with 65. Former Walsall seamer Gareth Williams took 4 for 41 for the Chester Road side but it was McChrisite and Freeman’s day and they steered Walsall to a second win in two games which takes them into mid-table. Smethwick’s poor run shows no sign of ending and they crashed to a 71 run defeat to Moseley. Aadam Din (122 not out) scored his second century of the season and Huw Jones scored 40 in a Moseley total of 242 with Aurrol Kirnon taking 4 for 55 for Smethwick. Faisal Shahid top scored with 43 in the Smethwick reply but Usman Awan stepped in with 5 for 46 to clinch the game for Moseley.