Birmingham League: West Bromwich Dartmouth win top v bottom clash against Coventry and North Warwicks
Jun 23 2010 by Peter Keenan, Birmingham Mail
West Bromwich Dartmouth’s top v bottom clash against Coventry and North Warwicks went true to form as the leaders beat the strugglers by 147 runs.
Rawlston Tappin (57) and Priyesh Dhoolab (56) rescued table-topping Dartmouth’s innings as they made it to 191 all out before lowly Coventry were skittled for just 44.
Tharindu Perera (4 for 12) and Naheem Sajjad (3 for 19) were in fine form in the victory which puts Dartmouth 29 points clear at the summit.
Second-placed Old Hill lost ground with an eight wicket defeat at Brockhampton and there are now just 12 points between them and their conquerors in fifth.
Old Hill clocked up 248 for 4 with Mike Hingley contributing 108, but Brockhampton hit back with 250 for 2 thanks largely to Chris Borough’s unbeaten 99.
Big-hitting Wombourne are in third after making more than 300 for the third match running in their winning draw against Leamington Spa.
Michael Hill (107) and Karl Quiney (54) helped them to 310 for six but Mark Lewis (78) and David Bailey (60 not out) took Leamington to 261 for five to claim a share of the spoils.
In fourth position are Bromsgrove who enjoyed a six-wicket victory against Attock, posting 111 for 4 after dismissing their visitors for 110.
Nick Husbands (5 for 34) and Mark Evenson (3 for 14) did the damage with the ball for Bromsgrove.
Dorridge eased their relegation worries with a winning draw against Shifnal, posting 246 for six before restricting their opponents to 191 for eight. They are now fourth bottom. Abdul Hafeez top scored for Dorridge with 66, while Tom Hollins hit 52 in Shifnal’s reply.
Halesowen are still in the thick of it in second bottom after blowing a winning position to lose by one wicket to Stratford-upon-Avon.
The strugglers looked to be going strong when they made it to 159 and had Stratford at 98 for eight.
But Wigsy Troughton (40 not out) and Tom Grundy (35) produced a ninth wicket stand of 61 to save Stratford before the former hit the winning runs to clinch a dramatic narrow victory.
Troughton deserved to be the match-winner having earlier taken 5 for 37, but defeat was harsh on Halesowen captain Mohammed Ishtiaq who made 34 and took 5 for 57.
The bottom two of Coventry and Halesowen are now more than 20 points adrift of Attock.
