Quatt bounce back to stay top of the Shropshire County Cricket League

An unbroken century stand between Tom Whitney (95no) and Ryan Wheldon (63no) got table-topping Quatt back to winning ways in the Shropshire County Cricket League Premier Division.

Having lost three of their previous five games, their position at the summit was becoming more perilous by the week, but they returned to form thanks to Whitney and Wheldon at second-bottom Shrewsbury seconds.

Quatt’s bowlers made steady gains against the Shrewsbury batters, but they were only able to take six wickets as the hosts, who won the toss and elected to bat, posted 221-6.

The middle-order combination of Harry Cooke (58) and Rob Foster (50no) proved most fruitful and gave Shrewsbury something to defend.

But opener Whitney carried his bat for 43.1 overs as his top-order partners fell around him, before Wheldon joined him to guide Quatt to a much-needed seven-wicket victory.

St Georges are up to second - just three points behind Quatt - after racking up the runs in their 140-run success over Sentinel.

The hosts declared on 292-9 after 46 overs, with Amritpal Singh (120) and Zabiullah Safi (67) having led the way.

In reply, Shah Faiz (5-36) took apart most of the top order - supported by Ali Mustafa (2-29), Faisal Khan (2-20) and Babar Khan (1-12) - as Sentinel were skittled for 152.

Wellington are third, 12 points off the pace, after easing to a nine-wicket success over Shelton.

Matthew Morris (4-18), Oliver Smith (3-7) and David Laird (2-18) bowled out Shelton for exactly 100, before Daniel Vaughan (50) and Avijay Maharaj (36no) saw the hosts home with the bat inside 16 overs.

Allscott Heath continued their upward momentum and are now fourth, 21 points off the top, after beating Wem by 46 runs to climb above their hosts in the table.

Maisam Hasnain Jaffri held the Allscott innings together with 107 runs of their 192-7 total. Luke Thornton (47) provided the only decent support.

The bowlers, therefore, still had plenty of work to do and bowled out Wem for 146 inside 29 overs - Kuldeep Devatwal (3-24), Jack Garmson (3-35), Matthew Hutchings (2-38) and Thornton (1-4) sharing the wickets.

Sixth-placed Whitchurch have now won four in a row after beating Madeley by 102 runs.

Kunal Dabas (61no) and Kashif Hussain (44) led Whitchurch to 218 all out, before Hussain (3-12) and Shabbir Khan (3-15) led the reply with the ball, skittling Madeley for 116.

Elsewhere, bottom side Newtown refused to allow Ludlow to pull away from relegation danger after beating them by three wickets.

Deon Patel (74) led Ludlow to 221 all out off the final ball of their innings, despite three wickets each for Griff Davies (3-42), Jordan Baijnath (3-56) and Nathan Smith (3-64).

In reply, Baijnath scored an unbeaten 111 off 110 balls to guide Newtown home in the 45th over, despite the best efforts of Joe Williams (4-61).