Wormelow 1st XI bounced back from their recent poor run of form with an emphatic 7 wicket victory over visiting Old Swinford & Stourbridge Social CC 1st XI at Kennelfield.

Home skipper Tom Cutler won the toss and invited the visitors to bat first. Opening bowlers Cutler and Ali Main set the tone early on as the opposition openers found runs in short supply.

Wormelow however, had to wait until the 18th over of the innings before all rounder Elliott Williams picked up the first wicket of the day with the score on 63. This proved to be the turning point for Wormelow as Williams knocked over four of the top six batsmen to return the fine figures of 4-39 as wickets fell regularly.

Cutler returned to the action and rattled the stumps on three separate occasions as he picked up season best figures of 3-33. With Main (1-24) and Luke Jones (1-11) also in the wickets OS&SS were dismissed for 188 in the 46th over.

With the batting line up showing plenty of frailties over the past few weeks, the Wormelow cause wasn’t helped by a serious thumb injury to regular opener Matt Deem which saw him unable to bat. A reshuffle of the batting order saw regular opener Jones joined by Robbie Stonadge, who was making his first appearance of the league campaign.

After a solid start the first wicket went down with the score on 17 as Jones was trapped in front for 10. James Snow, another making his seasonal debut, joined Stonadge with a decent partnership needed. Snow decided that attack was the best form of defence as he set about the visiting bowlers in some style. Snow found the boundary on a regular basis and received good support from Stonadge, who battled on despite being hampered by a hip injury, as the scoreboard rattled along. The partnership was worth 122 when Stonadge departed for 26, the second LBW victim of the innings.

Disaster then struck for Snow when he was caught just three runs short of what would have been a very well deserved century, his 97 coming off just 57 balls and featuring 15 fours and 3 sixes. With the home side on 142-3 and still requiring 47 for victory, the visitors were still in with a chance.

A decent unbroken fourth wicket partnership of 57 between Williams (23no) and Main (19no), who both batted with great maturity, ensured there were no further alarms and a fine victory was achieved in just the 32nd over.

A great way to bounce back and lift the spirit within the club, Wormelow will be looking for another positive result when they welcome Coombs Wood CC to Kennelfield.