Newport lack killer touch

Pre-season favourites Newport are still looking for their first Marston's Shropshire Premier League victory of the season — as the Madeley bandwagon rolls on.

Newport, relegated from the Birmingham League premier division last season, were able to declare after 48 overs of their clash at Shelton on 246-5.

Rob Furniss (78), Aditya Jain (70) and Paul Furniss (52) were the chief contributors, but Newport failed to press home the advantage in the field.

A maiden first-team half century for Mark Davies gave Shelton a solid platform.

And, when the hosts were struggling on 132-5, 47 from Ben Chambers and 32 from Matt Morris ensured a share of the spoils as Shelton ended on 202-7.

"The scorebard says it all," said chairman Bob Williams.

"We once again posted a large total but we couldn't get outright victory.

"We are still looking for our first win but we continue to pick up plenty of points and are sure a full haul is not too far away."

Spare

Madeley's dream start to the campaign continued as the leaders consolidated their place at the top of the table with a surprisingly one-sided victory over Quatt.

Eugene McCarney made 39 for Quatt but five wickets for Craig McLean and three for Kieran Richards saw the hosts dismissed for just 151.

And half centuries from Steve Pugh and Jonathan Prince saw Madeley home with plenty to spare.

There was relief all round for Reman Services as the champions of 2008 gained their first success of the campaign.

They cruised to an eight wicket success over Broseley after successfully chasing 104, John Wigley hitting an unbeaten 51.

Such a comfortable victory hadn't looked likely as Broseley reached 70-2, but off spinner Dominic Bradburn took 5-15 as the bottom club were bowled out for 103.

"We don't deserve to be where we are in the league so it's good to get that first win," said Reman captain Mal Serplet.

"We haven't had a bad start so hopefully we can be up there come the end of the season."

By JAMES GARRISON