Cricket
Harvington move into promotion places

HARVINGTON moved into second place in Worcestershire League Division Three thanks to a battling winning draw against visitors Himbleton on Saturday.

Batting first, Himbleton rode their luck early on after the dismissal of key batsman Jon Critchlow for 30 to a good rising ball from Johannes Venter.

This brought Duncan Roke to the crease and, despite being dropped on 0 and also another three times in his innings, he began to hit the ball to all parts of the ground.

During his innings of 157 not out he hit nine sixes as the Harvington attack had no answer to this display of power hitting.

The pick of the attack was James Towey with 1-17 off eight overs.

Himbleton piled up 299-6 in 50 overs, with Ben Hawker picking up three wickets for Harvington, but all the bowlers with the exception of Towey were expensive.

In reply Harvington knew Himbleton's strength was in their batting and this was proved right as Harvington carried the attack to their opposition.

Both openers Dave Waters with 56 and Andrew Fisher with 58 looked comfortable.

Harvington lost three overs due to a shower so they had 47 overs to bat to get the winning draw target of 282 as the winning score due to the rain loss became impossible.

Jaimen Rudd gave the innings real momentum with an aggressive 74 and it was left to Venter (25no) and Hawker (16no) to complete the winning draw as Harvington finished on 289-6, rueing the loss of the three overs which denied them a fine chance of victory.

The home side scored an impressive 116 in the last ten overs of the game to complete the draw, which earned 14 points and leaves them 12 behind leaders Cookley ahead of tomorrow's visit to Harborne.

Harvington 2nds were defeated at Himbleton as the home side amassed 306-4 in 50 overs.

In reply Harvington were dismissed for 151 in which Trevor Knowles hit 57.

On Sunday in a 30-over contest Harvington easily defeated visitors Alcester & Ragley.

Alcester posted 120 all out as George Whiston and Dan Colburn both took three wickets and in reply Harvington comfortably reached 122-4 as Pete Smith made an unbeaten 35.

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