Following a washout last week the Barnards Green 1st XI travelled to Halesowen CC. The hosts won the toss and chose to bowl. Openers George Rhodes and Ryan Tongue started carefully, finding it hard to score off Eddie Rhodes in particular. Tongue hit a few boundaries off Hassan Qaumi but he took his revenge when Tongue was caught by Hassan Akram for 31. Ollie Halion joined Rhodes with the score on 62 in the 16th over and this pair kept the scoreboard ticking over at a steady rate. Rhodes passed 50 off 62 balls in the 26th over and the Green reached 100 in the 29th over. Their partnership of 82 was finally broken when Halion (25) was caught by Alexei Kervezee off Masharraf Shazad. Joe Crichard came and went leaving the Green 140-3 in the 40th over.

Phil Harris joined Rhodes and the run rate began to climb. Eddie Rhodes returned to the attack with immediate effect as he had George Rhodes caught by Kervezee for 100 – which came off 117 balls and included 8 fours and a six. Mahaz Ahmed came in at 6 in the 49th over with the score on 183 and he sensibly gave Harris the strike. Harris took charge hitting a magnificent 53 runs off just 26 balls to go from 25 to 78 and take the Green to 249 before being run out by Ramanjot Jaswal with 2 balls to remaining. His 78 came off just 57 balls and included 3 fours and 7 sixes. The Green finished 251-5 off their 55 overs – with 111 coming off the last 15 overs.

Harris made an immediate impact with the ball too – taking three wickets in his first 4 overs. Ramanjot Jaswall, bowled for 4 and both Harry Badham and Alexei Kervezee caught behind by keeper Ash Brewer, without scoring. Ryan Tongue clean bowled Jamie Harrison for 2 to leave Halesowen struggling on 7-4 in the 7th over with Hassan Qaumi and Ryan Lockley at the crease. This pairing took the score to 41 before Lockley was caught behind off Josh Blunt for 13. The very next over Qaumi fell caught and bowled by George Rhodes for 22.

Wes Griffiths and Masharraf Shazad came together with Halesowen 45-6 with still over 33 overs to face. They had taken the score to 86 in the 33rd over when the next breakthrough came – Griffiths bowled by Josh Blunt for a hard fought 33. Eddie Rhodes came in at 9 to join Shazad with a tough task of 21 over to survive. Captain Tongue rotated his bowlers in an attempt to break the partnership, and it was he who broke the partnership of 69 in the 50th when Rhodes holed out to Harris for 41 which included 6 fours. Hassan Akram (8 not out) and Shazad (41 not out) batt4ed out the remaining 5 overs and Halesowen ended their 55 overs 169 for 8. The Green took 16 points from the winning draw to secure their place in the top six.

The 2nd XI hosted Stourbridge at North End Lane – the visitors won the toss and chose to bat. Lewis Regan struck with his 4th ball when Ali Rashid was caught by Jack Mackintosh without scoring. Stewart Hepburn clean bowled Heran Patel for 1 and Regan struck again clean bowling Mohammed Nazir for 23 Stourbridge were 36 for 3 off 8 overs. Tom Stephens was batting well but watched three more colleagues return to the pavilion. Aiden Avey was clean bowled by Blair Kingsland for 19 then both Scott Ludlam (2) and Vikesh Patel (0) were caught by Kingsland off Sam Clarke to leave him on a hat-trick. Stephens and Luke Alexander had put on 91 when Regan had him caught by Kingsland for 47 giving him his third wicket (3-44). Stourbridge’s 171-7 soon became 178 all out when captain Kingsland brought himself back on. He bowled both Umar Khalid and Will Davis for 0 then had Abigail Houghton caught by Sam Clarke for 2.

In reply the Green started aggressively with 11 coming off both the first two overs but unfortunately they also included the first wicket when Rob Wilson was bowled for 9 by Umar Khalid. Maun John making his 2nd XI debut hit a rapid 21 off 14 balls before being bowled by Luke Alexander. This brought Stewart Hepburn in with the score on 50 for in just the 5th over! His innings was just as explosive – he raced to 46 off just 19 balls. This included 26 off 5 balls of Abigail Houghton’s first over but she got revenge when he holed out to Mohammed Nazir. The Green were 102 for 3 in the 9th over. Next out was Monzur Ahmed (10) caught by Ali Rashid off Will Davis. This brought Jack Mackintosh in to join Callum Morris and this pairing saw the Green comfortably home in the 20th over. They finished 182-4 with Morris not out 22 and Mackintosh not out 32.

The Green 3rd X1 travelled to Tenbury Wells and after winning the toss put the hosts in to bat. Owen Throup (3-28) and Ollie Davies (1-17) once again started well with some superbly controlled seam bowling to rip through the top order and leave Tenbury struggling on 39 for 4. The host’s middle order tried to counter-attack, but the Green’s U14s bowlers; Luke Haffield (3-31) and Owen Gregory (1-22), combined with the experience of Roger Thompson (1-10), James Laidler and Rob Eyles continued to bowl very well and dismissed Tenbury for 148 in the 36th over. The bowlers were well supported by some good ground fielding and well taken catches by Josh Mallinson, Owen Gregory and Luke Haffield.

In reply the Green got off to a good start with Roger Thompson and Ollie Davies taking the score to 53 before Davies fell for 22. Thompson continued to punish any bad balls before he was unluckily dismissed for 47. Owen Gregory (13) and Josh Mallinson (16) batted sensibly and made useful contributions before Nick Davies (8no) and Luke Haffield (20no) came in to get the Green over the line in 33 overs.