Cricket
Harvington stay in the thick of promotion picture

HARVINGTON moved up into third place in Worcestershire League Division Three with a solid five-wicket victory at Alveley on Saturday.

After winning the toss and electing to field, Harvington's new ball pairing of Jo Venter (4-40) and Ben Hawker (1-17) soon had Alveley in trouble at 30-3.

Venter's four wickets included ex-Ashton-under-Hill batsman Jason Glazier first ball and Hawker trapped Pakistani professional Waqar Orakzai leg before.

Part-time off-spinner Dave Waters picked up two useful wickets, as did Steve McKelvie and, despite a little late order resistance, Alveley were dismissed for 116.

In reply Harvington got off to a steady start as Andrew Fisher and Waters put on 35 for the first wicket.

When Fisher was dismissed for 16, Venter did a good rebuilding job with Waters.

Wickets began to tumble though as Venter (18) and Waters (21) departed, but James Towey's 34 put his side on the verge of victory.

Left-hander Chris Andrews made an unbeaten 14 as Harvington reached 117-5 with lots of overs to spare.

Harvington 2nds beat visitors Alveley by 69 runs to move out of the bottom two in Division Three 2nd XI.

Harvington posted 147 all out in which George Whiston top scored with 39.

In reply Alveley were dismissed for 78 as Trevor Knowles and Sam Bannister both took four wickets.

The Harvington Sunday side defeated visitors Stow-on-the-Wold comfortably by 98 runs.

Venter (91) and Fisher (63) were the main contributors in Harvington's 240-4 and in reply Stow were all out for 142 as Jethro Chadwick took 3-8, Fisher 2-8 and 15-year-old Tom Heywood 2-27.

Harvington host Himley tomorrow and the 2nds are away against the same opposition.

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