Birmingham League round-up: Shifnal lose in low-scoring affair
Shifnal have had a tough season so far and they were on the wrong side of a low-scoring affair at the weekend in the Birmingham League.
In Division Two, the Shropshire side sit ninth, 40 points clear from safety, but they lost in agonising fashion at the weekend by 27 runs at home to Stourbridge, who are joint top of the division.
After recently appointed skipper Charlie Home, who is also in charge of Shropshire, won the toss and elected to field, he would have been delighted they had managed to bowl their visitors out for 80.
Cameron Jones (3-23) and Alex Renton (3-9) were the stars with the ball in hand, while Home and his Shropshire team-mate Ben Roberts both took two wickets apiece.
Amazingly, it took Stourbridge 38 overs and two balls to reach that total.
Yet Shifnal’s hopes of victory were undone by the bowling of Dan Wale and Jaspreet Singh, who tore through the batting line-up to have their hosts back in the pavilion for just 53. Jack Twigger (13) was the only batsman to reach double figures while Singh (5-20) and Wale (5-31) had a field day with the ball.
Elsewhere in Division Two, it was a disappointing day for Worfield as they picked up just seven points at Tamworth.
Greg Wright won the toss and put the home side into bat, with them making 181-5 from their 23 overs. Riley Ward starred in the first innings, making 64 from 42 balls, including one four and four sixes - Jacob Flower also made 48.
Matt Rees returned the best bowling figures for the Shropshire side taking four of the five wickets taken and only going for 33 runs.
Worfield never really got going in the reply as they ended up 87-6 from their 23 overs. Aman Hussain was the top scorer with 27 off 44 balls.
In Division One, Shrewsbury made the journey to title-chasing Knowle & Dorridge, but due to heavy rain, which had an impact on almost all of the games across the two leagues, it was abandoned without a ball being bowled.
Shrewsbury have had a decent return to the top level though, and they sit in mid-table after 13 games. They welcome Ombersley to London Road next weekend.
