2025 Premier Division Round Up Week 8

Something had to give at Orleton Park as the two “100%” sides Wellington and Ludlow faced off in a tense thriller that went down to the wire with the hosts edging it by 1 wicket. In a match reduced to 40 overs a side, the Ludlow innings ticked along nicely enough although only Jason Oakes with 39 and a quick 30no from Josh Bowen really got on top of the home bowling at any stage, with 6 Wellington bowlers taking wickets. A total of 159ao was not uncompetitive and the visitors made early inroads despite being without key men Luke Miles and Salahuddin Malik. Their new ball replacements Danny Bradley (3-23) and the pacy Bowen (2-32) accounted for overseas pro Brian Mudzinganyama whose struggles continue, while Matt Simmonds, Will Lewin and Dan Vaughan all fell cheaply although the latter was particularly unlucky to glove a ball that reared violently off a length. It all left Wellington in trouble at 47-5 and it could have been worse if Dan Lloyd (pictured) had not escaped the ball ricocheting onto the stumps and the bail not falling. As it was Lloyd continued to play nicely and found an ally in Josh McDonald as they reached 131-6 and seemingly another victory. Oakes then broke through Lloyds defences after a gritty 45, and with 2 more quick wickets falling, at 145-9 last man Oliver Smith joined McDonald with the game in the balance. Smith showed maturity in playing straight and the classy McDonald saw his side home yet again finishing it with a huge six off the unfortunate Kate Brazier who had a tough task being brought on so late in the innings with just 12 needed, McDonald finishing 45*. Wellington march on and are very short price favourites now to claim the title. 

Dan Vaughan “Josh McDonald is a cheat code batting number 8! Fair play to Ludlow they fought really well but like last week at Wem we back ourselves to chase their score down and although it was a bit tighter than we would like, we got the job done”

Ludlow Chair Phil Parker “we played well and I actually thought we deserved to win this one more than some of the others we have got over the line in, we were missing a few today and it was a brilliant effort all round”

Newtown made it back to back wins and a first home victory at attempt number 5 as they comprehensively outplayed Wem in one of the biggest upsets of the season so far. Captain David Laird led by example his sparkling 66 the top score in a total of 201-9 off 50 overs. It was something of a change of approach by almost all the home batsmen, who have perhaps been  guilty of not batting the overs in a few games this year, but on this  occasion they saw it through for the full 300 balls.  Jim Astley with 3-47 was the chief wicket taker for Wem while Ralph Davies and Alex Ollerenshaw each took a pair of wickets.  The Wem reply never recovered from losing Harry Astley in the first over to Laird and with the Shropshire all-rounder also accounting for Karabo Mogotsi (finishing with 3-18), it was then over to Tom Anderson, the former Welshpool seamer showing once again why he is one of the best in the division with an outstanding 5-21 as the visitors succumbed to 72ao. 

David Laird “fantastic win for us against a big club like Wem, the lads gave everything to a man today with the lower order really pushing us up to a competitive score. Tom was superb again with the new ball  and I was pleased to contribute myself also”   

Allscott Heath pro Kuldeep Devatwal really showed his class in composing a sublime 110 off just 81 balls as they comfortably defeated an under strength Shelton side, who are currently going through a bit of a sticky patch. Max Ferrington opened up steadily for the hosts with 27 but the Allscott batting order then subsided to 112-7 and it was only an 8th wicket partnership between the dominant Devatwal and captain Callum Starling that enabled a competitive score of 215-8 off a reduced 40 overs. Pick of the away bowlers was Ross Griffiths (2-32) while Simon Jones, Yuv Sharma and Saleh Ahmed also took a brace each. Just like last week the Shelton  batting was entirely dependent on one contribution, this time Vivian John carried his bat for an excellent 52no out of a team score of 77ao, as Shropshire allrounder Luke Thornton delivered a fine 4-21, while the captain and Jason Summers also picked up 2 wickets apiece to keep Allscott in the chasing pack.

Callum Starling “We have had some close games lately that haven’t always gone our way so this was a nice solid team performance although Kuldeep was the star of the show playing a chanceless knock that was a pleasure to watch from the other end. Our bowling and fielding were also very clinical so a good day for us”

Simon Jones “It’s a tough slog at the moment, availability isn’t great, today we let them off the hook a bit  albeit their pro was superb. Our batting never recovered from our pro getting a brute of a ball that reared up, we are waiting to see if he has any broken bones”

St Georges produced one of the most dominant performances of the season as they beat Telford rivals Madeley by a whopping 203 runs at Church Street. Half centuries from Mo Rahell Khattak, Faizan Khan and Zabi Safi, and several other players all chipping meant a fine score of 305-9, as the visiting attack toiled for little reward. In reply the Madeley top and middle order were blown away by an outstanding spell from Sunny Singh who took 5-19 from his 10 overs, to reduce them to 42-7. Only a fighting 36 from new skipper Oli Davis and 22no from Ian Walker got the score up to 3 figures as they succumbed to 102ao.

Faisal Khan “the team gave me a lovely Eid Present! We changed the order around and Raheel hit another fine knock as did Faizan and Zabi who are powerhouses for us. We were always worried about the rain so raced to get the 20 overs in but with Sunny bowling so well the result was never in doubt. Delighted to go back to back, lets hope this is the start of a huge run, it’s a big game next week (at Ludlow) and the boys are ready!”

Stand in captain Chris Miller held his nerve to deliver Quatt 20pts in a tense run chase against visitors Sentinel. Earlier in the day it was rinse and repeat for the away top order as they were reduced to 44-4, but Mal Serplet composed a useful 41 and found support from Alex Johnson (25) as they recovered to total 146ao. James Lunn took 3-41 while there were 2 wickets apiece for Scott Furber, Ryan Wheldon and Joshua Greff. Quatt would have been favourites at halfway, particularly with the Engines missing in-form Shane Gwilt, but there has been no sense of permanence about the home batting in recent games and despite reaching 50 without loss, it was another familiar story as a succession of batsmen got in but couldn’t go on to close the game out. At 101-7 it was left to the experienced Miller (29no) and he found an able partner in Scott Furber (14no), the two of them saw it through without further loss. Alex Johnson and Tom Griffiths shared 4 wickets but 26 wides across the innings really hurt the away side. 

Finally the  match between Whitchurch and Bridgnorth was abandoned around 12.45pm (4pts each) with the umpires deeming no play was possible.