Cricket
Harvington set the early pace

HARVINGTON moved to the top of Worcestershire League Division Three with a two-wicket victory over visitors Alveley on Saturday.

After winning the toss and electing to field, Harvington soon had Alveley under pressure with opening overseas bowler Jo Venter a real handful on a tricky wicket.

The only Alveley batsman to succeed in the conditions was Shahzad Ahmed who rode his luck with a hard-hitting 73, making the most of being dropped three times.

Despite this he could not carry Alveley on his own as they crumbled to 112 all out as Venter returned hugely impressive figures of 8-33 off 11 overs, proving too quick for most of the Alveley batters.

James Towey and Ben Hawker took the other wickets.

In reply, despite the early loss of Pete Smith, Harvington started steadily with Jaimen Rudd (21) and Dave Waters (25) taking their side to 60-1.

At this time there was the impending threat of bad weather so the Harvington middle order attempted to increase the run rate and as a result wickets began to tumble.

For a time it looked like Alveley could have produced a win thanks to overseas player Waqar Orakzai (3-15 in 15 overs).

However, the experienced pair of skipper Simon Price and Chris Andrews saw him off and managed to get over the finishing line on 116-8 to give their side a two-wicket victory and continue the impressive start to the season.

A young Harvington 2nds lost a close game at Alveley 2nds by two wickets.

Stu Powell with 33 and Jethro Chadwick (31) top scored for Harvington in their 129 and Chadwick also followed up with three wickets and Jack Smout and David Moulson two apiece, but the back-up bowlers did not provide the same threat as Alveley reached 130-8.

On Sunday Harvington visited Temple Grafton and the visitors amassed 257-6 in 40 overs thanks to Jamie Anderson's 77, Venter's 70 and a quickfire 55 from Nick Powell.

In reply Temple Grafton were 110 all out, as 12-year-old Ryan Blakemore took a hat-trick in only his second game of adult cricket and under 13 player Michael Towey took 2-23 off eight overs.

Harvington visit Himley tomorrow.

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