Premier Division Roundup Week 12
By Jamie Dowley
The Keith Moon Show!!
It was once said by Shane Warne that “a wicketkeeper is the drummer in the band” well if that is so then Harry Chandler produced the kind of performance that the likes of Keith Moon and John Bonham would have appreciated as he was in incredible form in Wem’s win at Sentinel. Batting first the hosts were reduced to 46-5 as Chandler firstly stumped Aaryan Dixit down the leg side, and followed it up with 3 catches one of which standing up to Jim Astley was simply outstanding as he took one off the face of the bat again down the leg side. Astley was in fine form himself in taking 4-34, while spinner Tyler Ibbotson (2-43) and his young protégé Ralph Davies (2-20) took a pair of wickets apiece. Of the top order only Mal Serplet (pictured batting) with 26 made a score but there did follow some lower order consolidation from Alex Johnson (35), Cam Watson (26) and 20 from Harry Thomas. This enabled the Engines to reach 166ao, something of a decent recovery, but still very much under par on a fast true pitch with lightning outfield. Chandler then carried on where he left off with a quickfire 56 in the reply, Sam Peate made 38, and despite 3 wickets falling with the score on 121, an unbeaten 21 from Steve Blenkinsop saw them home inside 20 overs for a comfortable 6 wicket win. It all meant the visitors 24 points lifts them above their opponents into 4th place.
Bridgnorth produced their best performance of the season and closed the gap to the teams above them at the bottom, Shelton being one of them who they outplayed from ball one in the county town. Batting first, Raja “attack” Atteq played his customary style of innings at the top of the order, his 52 off 36 balls laid a great platform for the likes of Arjun Cheruki (43), Peter Scott (34) and an outstanding 87 from Ross Hurdley as they reached a total of 289ao. The home attack was led by Simon Jones his 5-59, the 12th five wicket haul of his Shelton career, while Ross Griffiths chipped in with 4-77. In reply, there was no let up from Fazl Ur Raham as he ripped through the home order, taking a fantastic 7-47, while Jed Shwarzbach took 3-36 as Shelton were dismissed for 126, only really opener Harry Webster performing with 47. This leaves Mark McPherson-Lees’ side within a win of 11th placed Madeley with Shelton only another 10 points on. Worrying times for the West Shrewsbury side….
This weeks fixtures are the reverse of the Bank Holiday games and on that occasion Whitchurch thumped Newtown inside 2 hours play. Saturday's game at Heath Rd was a chance for the Welshmen to gain revenge and they did it with a superb performance with bat and ball. Batting first, captain Ben Price set them on their way with 34, and David Laird made a solid 60 on his return, and at one stage they were 112-3 inside 20 overs. Kash Hussain pegged them back in taking 4-69, but on a wicket that favoured slow bowling it was Shabbir Khan who really got Whitchurch back into the game, his 5-38 limited the visitors to a total of 206, one that could have been even lower without Griff Davies’ 33. Newtown have a predominantly spin attack and in ideal conditions, former Shropshire allrounder Sam Baugh bowled his 15 overs of slow left arm, right through for 2-30. This control left Nathan Smith to wreak havoc at the other end , the former Montgomery off-spinner bowled a superb spell as he took career best figures of 7-51 to dismiss their opponents for 130. A massive 24 points for Newtown that keeps them a bit in hand above the relegation zone.
Arguably the best two players in the league went head to head at Allscott as Jason Oakes took on Kuldeep Devatwal and it was the Indian pro who came out on top as his side joined Ludlow in 2nd place after a thumping win. He made it 3 centuries in a row, as his 95 ball 130no enabled a total of 239-8 while Luke Thornton chipped in with 37 and Mo Adall 23. For the visitors, Joe Williams picked up 4-62, and Luke Miles raced through his 15 overs for 2-57. Credit to Ludlow who bowled at an over rate of 20 overs an hour, and credit also to Thornton who together with Matthew Hutchings knocked over the Ludlow top order in the reply, the stand in captain picking up the prize scalp of Oakes for a duck on his way to a season best of 5-26. Hutchings took 2-28 and Jason Summers then quickly wrapped up proceedings with 3-14 as the away side were dismissed for 73. That’s 4 defeats out of 5 for Oakes side, as Allscott join them on 175 points . Both sides talked of survival at the start of the campaign but clearly have now cemented their place in the division for 2026 but it remains to be seen who will finish higher of the two.
Leaders Wellingtons trip to St Georges looked a tricky one on paper, off the back of their first defeat last week and missing captain and star batsman Dan Vaughan. However, all of the visiting top order contributed to a total of 238-7, Will Lewin top scored with 61, captain for the day Matt Simmonds made 56 and Josh McDonald justifying his perhaps overdue promotion up the order with a fine run a ball 50. Sunny Singh was once again the star man for the Dragons with the ball in taking 4-49 off his 15 overs while Faisal Khan took 3-70. It looked a tough ask for the hosts and it got a whole lot harder after Hugh Morris had struck 3 times early on, but with Faizan Khan going well they got a foothold in the run chase. At 170-6 with 10 overs remaining it was game on, but when Simmonds dismissed Khan lbw for 87, the captain was able to wrap up proceedings, taking 5-31 to complete a superb all round game. Wellington march on and with 10 games to go and a 61pt lead look unassailable.
Finally, Quatt put their recent batting woes behind them to record a pretty convincing win over Madeley. Overseas pro Joshua Greef has struggled for runs so far but here the South African made 67, and with Chris Miller chipping in with 25, the hosts reached 196-7 off 50 overs on what must have been a difficult wicket for free scoring. Madeley stuck at the task in the field, Nadeem Ahmas with 2-33 off 15 overs performing admirably as did Mithun who took 3-48 off his 15. Any hopes of a Madeley chasedown were quickly nipped in the bud, as skipper Alex Biddle took 3-16 and Scott Furber 5-32 as despite 35no from Ian Walker, the visitors were dismissed for 139 with just over 4 overs remaining.
