Wormelow 2nd XI hosted Cookley 2nd XI at Kennelfield on Saturday. A win for the visitors would see them secure promotion whilst the home side still had an outside hope of promotion themselves but needed a big win. With bad weather around, the match was reduced to 45 overs a side, skipper Jordan Reading failed at the coin toss again and his side were asked to bowl first.

Cookley openers Martin (67) and Southam (61) put on 91 for the first wicket before Martin was caught by Reading off the bowling of Baynham. Stanaway (42) joined Southam and the runs continued to flow as Reading rotated his bowlers in search of another wicket. Baynham finally picked up the second wicket of the day when a clearly fatigued Stanaway was well stumped by Ashley Smith, Baynham struck again shortly after removing Southam courtesy of a Steve Wild catch. An athletic piece of fielding by the experienced Ed Melly then saw a fourth wicket fall. Cookley finished on a testing but not unchaseable 206-4 from their 45 overs. Baynham was the pick of the home attack picking up 3-49.

The Wormelow reply got off to a poor start as the influential Robbie Stonadge (8) and dasher Tom Price (6) both fell to good catches. The third wicket pair of Melly and Wild then went on the counter attack, Wild was being particularly destructive as he found the boundary at regular intervals. The pair had put on 80 when Wild holed out for 52 of just 41 balls. Melly, who had pulled up lame with a muscle injury, was now being assisted by Price who had been summoned as a runner. Wormelow were struggling on 104-4 when veteran Jamie Langford (5) nicked behind. The big wicket of Melly followed soon afterwards and it was no surprise that he departed after the hapless Price was run out, Melly gone for 24. Young Chris Stonadge (6) then departed and after a flurry of boundaries Baynham (26) was also dismissed with the score on 146-7. Skipper Reading joined keeper Smith with a decent partnership much needed. Smith was very watchful whilst Reading freed his arms taking an aggressive approach. The pair combined well and had moved the score to 191 with victory in sight. Disaster struck when Reading (31 off 26) was run out by a distance trying to pinch a second run after a mis-field. Smith was joined by Ben Porter who was being hampered by a neck injury, unfortunately Porter was unable to contribute a run and when last man James Powell followed suit a few balls later, the run chase had come to an end, an agonising 12 runs short. A fantastic game of cricket played in a great spirit by both teams. This week the 2nd XI visit Belbroughton in a straight shoot out for third spot in the league.