Top two march on in Shropshire County League
Neither Quatt or Whitchurch blinked as the Shropshire County League’s top two teams both recorded back-to-back wins over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Leaders Quatt are seven points clear with three matches remaining after following up a comfortable six-wicket win over Frankton by beating Allscott Heath by 33 runs.
But they had their bowlers to thank after they could only post 150 all out – the majority of the runs coming from lower-order batters Scott Furber (34), Luke Daly (26) and Craig Jones (20) as they recovered from 57-6.
Furber then took 4-10 with the ball, supported by Alex Biddle (2-27) and Kuldeep Diwan (4-39) – the latter the only top-half batter to get past 12 earlier, having scored 23.
Kuldeep Devatwal top-scored with 54 for Allscott, having earlier taken 3-14 alongside Jason Summers’ 5-58.
Devatwal (106) and Summers (103) were responsible for Alscott’s victory over Madeley on Saturday – sharing a second-wicket of stand 179 that at one stage had their side 274-1.
Second-placed Whitchurch just held on to win at Sentinel on Saturday and then again had their bowlers to thank for defending 151-9 at Oswestry.
Iftikhar Khan top-scored for Whitchurch with 44 before Shabbir Khan (4-28) and Shafiq Ahmed (3-41) helped bowl Oswestry out for 122.
The draw between Shrewsbury seconds (206) and St Georges (180-9) gave both sides a boost in their relegation fight, with 14 points going to Shrews and nine to St Georges.
Faizan Khan (96no) helped St Georges cling on to their last wicket for the final four overs of the match alongside Abdual Khan, who faced 12 of those balls. Ben Byram had earlier taken 5-49.
St Georges had climbed off the bottom with victory at Ludlow on Saturday, replaced by Frankton – who followed up their defeat to leaders Quatt by going down by seven wickets against fourth-placed Shelton. Simon Jones (5-38) and Antonio Morris (42no) were Shelton’s star men.
Wem remain third, after following up their surprise defeat at Shrewsbury seconds on Saturday by breezing past Madeley.
Opener Harry Chandler (102) held together much of Wem’s innings of 203 as they slipped to 113-7 thanks to a series of ducks and single-figure scores.
But No.9 Tom Astley finally provided him with some support to take the game away from Madeley, who were one short on their batting line-up and skittled for 58 in less than 18 overs – Astley (5-24) again starring.
