Champions Shrewsbury climbing the league

The reigning champions dismissed K & D for 162 after posting 202 in 47 overs to sit in fourth place,

Ed Foster hit 80 off 104 balls for Shrewsbury, but with Tom Smith (3-35) and Michael Bevan (3-38) the pick of the bowlers for K & D, there was little support for the opening batsman.

But, thankfully for Shrewsbury, seam duo England Under-19 all-rounder Ed Barnard (4-28) and Sam Griffiths (3-27) made life hard for the hosts, as did Foster, who took six catches as the hosts were dismissed in the 47th over.

Shifnal nearly pulled off a shock win at Smethwick only to go down by 16 runs and leave their Division One survival hopes hanging by a thread.

Now the second-bottom side need to avoid defeat against relegation rivals Oswestry this weekend to have a chance of staying up. They are currently 16 points adrift.

In a game reduced to 28 overs per side, Shifnal earned seven bonus points after they finished on 161-8 in reply to the home side's 177-6.

Muhamed Ayub did his best to restrict Smethwick with 3-21 off five overs.

Shifnal, who gave Smethwick six penalty runs for slow overs rate, saw captain and opening bat Tom Collins top-score with 45 before being run out and Graeme Cessford 30, while Kuldeep Diwan took 3-19 for Smethwick.

Collins said: "It's all on this weekend – if we lose to Oswestry, it's game over for us. I'm fairly confident because we've been playing good cricket but it's all on the day."

Reflecting on Saturday's game, he added: "Considering the state of the pitch, if we were in a different position in the league, we'd have probably called it off.

"But we bowled too many 'four' balls, that was the difference. Other than that, we bowled and fielded well and made a good fist of it with the bat – we were 70-1 until Mo Ayub got out to a poor decision.

"As I've said many times this season, it was a good performance but not quite enough."

Wellington were beaten by seven wickets at Barnards Green in Division One.

Although opening bat Neil Edwards hit 57 from 33 balls for Wellington, Mark Hardinges and Rikesh Umasuthan stepped up to take 4-11 and 3-19, respectively, as the Orleton Park side folded to 140 all out in 40.2 overs.

Oswestry did their survival chances no favours with a miserable display at Harborne.

Electing to bat after winning the toss, the third-bottom side collapsed to 82 all out in the 28th over.

Dalton Polius (5-26) and Raj Sen (4-19) shone with the ball and five Oswestry batsmen failed to get off the mark, Warwick Fynn their top scorer with a modest 28.

In response, 35 from Andy Lloyd and 33 from Guriq Randhawa eased Harborne to an eight-wicket victory.

Whitchurch's woes continued after they lost by six wickets at second-placed Penkridge in Division Two.

Just two days after captain Omar Ali was banned for four games by the league after a bust-up with Halesowen overseas player Tarryck Gabriel, third-bottom Whitchurch were all out for a modest 117 in the 40th over.

Opening bat Waqar Saleem topscored 47 for Whitchurch but there was little assistance for him through the order and Laeq Chishti (3-9) and Muhammad Murad (3-33) took three wickets each for Penkridge.

An unbeaten 70 from opener Mo Hassan saw Penkridge home in the 22nd over.

Bridgnorth's Division Three promotion hopes have gone up in smoke after an 11-run defeat to Sutton Coldfield.

Lee Thomason (70) and Jack Smith (42) were the main run scorers as Sutton scored 214-7 at Bridgnorth who were dismissed for 203, in reply.

James Ralph and Gareth Mumford joint top scored with 37.

Quatt have been relegated back to the Shropshire County League after a two-wicket defeat to Streetly.

Struggling on 49-4, Quatt recovered to 235-9, thanks to an unbroken last wicket stand of 67 with Hayden Cargo scoring 67 not out.

Sam Bates took 4-27 and Farid Ullah picked up 3-39 for Streetly, who were led to victory by 62 from Matt Hinton and 56 from Bates.

Ian Gregory (3-39) and Jon Edwards (3-42) ensured Quatt went down fighting after two seasons in Division Three.

Relegated Newport earned a six-wicket win at Kings Heath, who were bowled out for 139.

Amardeep Sonkar took 4-9, then 49 from Paul Furniss and an unbeaten 39 from Mark Downes secured victory for Newport.