PERSHORE were crowned kings of Worcestershire club cricket after a superb 20-run triumph over Stourport in the Worcestershire League Cup final on Saturday.
The Cup competition for Premier and Division One sides was keenly contested throughout and pitted the group-winning Plums against Stourport after both sides came through their semi-finals the previous weekend.
Pershore won the toss at Kidderminster Cricket Club’s Chester Road ground and had no hesitation in batting.
After the early loss of opener Paddy Thompson, Chris joined brother Liam Ridings at the crease and immediately both set about building a solid base with some excellent strokeplay and shot selection which saw both brothers post their half centuries at around the halfway point of the innings.
However, with the score on 141 with plenty of overs remaining and the end of innings score looking like it may reach the 300-mark, Liam Ridings holed out at deep mid-off.
This dismissal gave Stourport a lift which they took advantage of as the next ten overs saw them control the scoring rate and get themselves back into the game.
Only a late flurry from Charlie Norton (51 off 26 balls) who, with the help of captain Chris Ridings (102no) who scored a fine undefeated century, helped Pershore post a challenging target of 278 for victory off 40 overs.
In Stourport’s reply, after the early loss of a wicket, Ted Bayliss joined opener Charlie Foley at the crease and the two immediately started to punish the loose deliveries to give the visitors a great platform.
However, with the score at 88, the introduction of slow bowler Thompson changed the course of the match significantly as he almost immediately bowled the ominous-looking Bayliss who had scored at more than a run a ball and the very next ball dismissed captain Andrew Siwicki in the same way to send a shockwave through the Stourport innings.
The west Worcestershire men then began to rebuild the innings largely thanks to some fine batting from opener Foley who proved the dominant partner in a 62-run partnership with George Hatfield for the fifth wicket.
However, it was Thompson again who proved decisive as at the end of his spell he firstly dismissed Hatfield and then followed with the big wicket of Foley (99) who fell agonisingly short of a deserved century with just over 100 runs required for victory and the run rate around the ten per over mark.
Although a late flurry from Matt Hatfield gave Stourport hope, the damage caused by Thompson in the middle of the innings proved too much to come back from and Pershore eventually ran out deserved winners by a 20-run margin.
THERE was double delight across the Vale with the news Evesham were crowned Worcestershire League Plate champions on the same day.
A strong Evesham batting line-up proved too strong for a youthful Ombersley 3rds at Himley Cricket Club where Evesham triumphed by 125 runs.
Ombersley won the toss and decided to insert the opposition on what is generally an excellent batting surface.
After a circumspect start and the loss of an early wicket, Muhammad Tahir Mirza (100) decided attack was the best form of defence as he set about the youthful attack to record a century off just 90 balls – an innings which laid the foundations for a late-innings onslaught which yielded 70 runs in the final six overs as Evesham posted 266-8 off their 40 overs.
After a poor start this total proved far too many for a youthful and energetic Ombersley to chase and they were eventually dismissed for 141.
