Ramsay, Street hit form to see off neighbours
It’s three wins out of three for Shropshire Over-60s after they returned from their trip to Pershore to take on Worcestershire with maximum points, writes Dave Ballinger.
Skipper John Foster lost the toss and Shropshire were asked to bat first and he soon found himself back in the pavilion after picking out the fielder on the mid-wicket boundary.
But Elwyn Jones and Dave Street took the score to 87 on a good pitch with a slow outfield before the Frankton allrounder was dismissed for 28.
Street (85 from 95 balls) and Barry Jones (31) put on 76 for the fourth wicket and Alan Denver chipped in with an unbeaten 21 at the end to push the Shropshire score up to 196-6.
Foster said: “It wasn’t as many as we would have liked, but with the slow outfield that score was probably worth 225 at least, so tea was taken in good heart.”
Andy Parkyn and Dave Ashlin kept things tight with their opening spells picking up a wicket apiece, with Parkyn only conceding 13 runs from his nine overs, as Worcestershire reached 50-2 after 19 overs.
The introduction of Tim Cotton (2-32) and Ian Ramsay (4-29) into the attack saw wickets fall at regular intervals as the Worcestershire batsmen tried to up the scoring rate.
They were eventually dismissed for 116 after 38 overs to give Shropshire victory by 80 runs and leave them top of the table.
The Over-60s second XI took on Leicestershire & Rutland at Wroxeter in a game which was reduced to 20 overs-a-side due to the threat of rain.
Shropshire were put into bat and Andy Kemp (20) and Danny McIntosh (24) gave the side a good platform after the early loss of skipper Andrew Chapman.
Howard Robinson then smashed 65 off 43 balls to help propel Shropshire to a final total of 130-5.
Leicestershire reached the halfway stage of their innings on 61-1 before a sharp piece of fielding from Robinson produced a run out to break a promising-looking partnership.
The introduction of Leon Kosciuczyk into the attack then proved decisive as he took 4-10 to swing the game in Shropshire’s favour.
The visitors finished on 95-7 to give Shropshire victory by 35 runs.
Both Over-50s games against Wales were postponed due to the weather.
The Over-50s firsts will be hoping to taste action at Oxford on Wednesday while the Over-60s are also on the road as they make the trip to Dorridge CC to face Warwickshire tomorrow.
