Oswestry keen to carry on climbing

After a mixed start to the season, the Morda Road men are now up to seventh after picking up 18 points from their dominant draw against Leamington Spa.

That result means Robbie Clarke’s side are just one win adrift of third place, which is occupied by this weekend’s Shropshire rivals Bridgnorth.

As the season reaches its halfway point, confidence is high in the Oswestry camp after opening up a 39-point cushion above the two relegation places.

And chairman Chris Wiseman believes the team have what it takes to push into the upper echelons of the table in the coming weeks.

“We can definitely start to look up, not down,” he said. “We now play Bridgnorth who are third, and they are just 20 points above, so our target is to catch them.

“There’s not a lot between the sides in this league, as has been shown by the results this season, so it’s important now that we keep the run going.

“We should have won on Saturday, no doubt about it, but we will take 18 points and move on and look to finish the first half of the season with another good result.”

Oswestry go into the encounter on the back of their convincing draw against Leamington in which a quickfire century (122) from Worcestershire’s Joe Clarke helped them post their highest league score of 356-8 before their visitors finished on 250-9.

Clarke, who has already played four times for his hometown club this season, is unlikely to figure tomorrow due to his county’s commitments in the Vitality Blast on the Friday and Sunday.

He is set to be replaced by his younger brother Xavier who has been in good form for Shrewsbury School and Worcester Academy. Oswestry will also be without Alex Davidson and Ian Davies.

Bridgnorth go into the clash on the back of a resounding 101-run success against Brockhampton last weekend.

His lightning fast fielding has been missed on occasions this season.

while there is also a doubt over Alex Ramsay who split the webbing on his hand in Saturday’s winning draw against Leamington.

As the season reaches its hallway point, skipper Robbie Clarke will be eyeing up his spinning options as the long, hot spell continues.

He saw at first hand on Sunday how the Crown Meadow pitch, which is renowned for pace, gave the slow bowlers both turn and bounce as Shropshire crashed out to Cheshire in the semi-final of the Minor Counties One Day Trophy.

This was just five days after Shropshire had beaten their neighbours in the Three Day championship match at Shifnal with Oswestry’s spinner Warwick Fynn picking up four priceless wickets on the third morning of the game.

Although the Morda Road men are set for changes, they have shown they have strength in depth this term, with the form of 17-year-old all rounder Roman Walker particularly pleasing.

The Glamorgan rookie smashed 65 against Leamington last week, including four big sixes, before following it up with four wickets with a hostile spell of bowling.

“He was a handful with his pace, I wouldn’t have liked to have faced him, and before that there was some fantastic hitting,” added Wiseman. “It was a man-of-the-match display from him. Perhaps we witnessed two future England players in Joe and Roman playing on the same day at Oswestry.”

*Birmingham League officials were meeting later this week to discuss whether to allow clubs to rearrange their matches should England reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup to be played on Saturday afternoon.