Cricket
Hard work pays off as Pershore earn winning draw

TIRELESS work by the groundstaff, players and helpers enabled a match to go ahead at The Bottoms on Saturday and Pershore capitalised by gaining a winning draw.

No other matches in Worcestershire League Division One saw a ball bowled - leaving everyone else with five points from the day - but Pershore had the better of this rain-reduced fixture against Worcester Nomads and took ten points to increase their lead over second placed Astwood Bank to ten points.

The match was reduced to 30 overs per side and Nomads skipper Ben Schiffmann won the toss and unsurprisingly asked the home side to bat on a very wet, but playable pitch.

The visiting bowlers made full use of the conditions in making scoring very difficult.

Openers Tim Smith (31) and David White (37) laid the foundations but it was Lee Wilks with a blistering unbeaten 49 from just 36 balls that enabled Pershore to post a competitive score of 144-5 from their allotted overs.

In their reply Nomads were never up to the required scoring rate and scored just 18 from the first nine overs.

Liam O'Driscoll then came to the wicket and a quickfire 27 looked like retrieving the situation but, in the gathering gloom, the rate again dropped and with the rain now falling heavily the sides were just able to compete the 25 overs that constituted a match.

Nomads closed on 92-5, which gave Pershore a winning draw in addition to bonus points and enabled them to increase their lead at the top of the table.

Tomorrow Pershore visit fifth placed Bromyard who, like Pershore, have five wins to their name.

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