A WICKET from the very first ball of the game proved to be the catalyst for Luctonians to go on and claim their first win of the season in Division 1 of the Crusader Worcestershire County League.

They restricted home team Romsley and Hunnington to 183-9 and, after a wobbly start which saw them stuttering to 40-5, bounced back to record a two-wicket win with four overs to spare.

Five wickets for Ed Rollings, Richard Henwood with an undefeated century plus a useful contribution with both bat and ball from Vinnie Kay were the main ingredients of the success.

The home team were rocked on to the back foot as Kay took their first three wickets by the time the score reached 62, Paul Pickering scoring half the runs, after electing to bat. Opener Simon James (55) and T Winter (18) pushed the score past three figures before Rollings got into his stride to reduce them to 105-5.

Rollings finished with the fine figures of 5-47 from 13 overs and Kay 3-57 off 19.

The win looked a distant dream when the score read 40-5 with Mark Louden the only batsman to reach double figures, as Richard Beaumont (6-37) created havoc in the top order. Henwood, who came to the wicket in the first over, found a useful partner in Kay (25) and they took the score on to 113-6.

Will Hicks and Rob Harper hung around whilst a further 70 runs were wiped off the target, leaving Tom Hicks to score the winning run in company with Henwood (110 not out). The 24 points gained would have taken Luctonians off the bottom of the table if Stourbridge had not taken the same haul from a low-scoring win over Astwood Bank, to retain their one-point gap.

It could have been so different for the West Midlands side who have been docked 140 points for contravening the rules by playing a number of overseas players in the same side. They would otherwise have been involved in a tight three-way tussle at the top of the table, along with Ombersley and Kington.

Brockhampton did Kington a big favour by beating leaders Ombersley by 41 runs at the Parks. Mohammad Ali and Richard Parker took nine wickets between them to bowl the visitors out for 178 after Nick Denny (70) and Johnny Walker (56 off 46 balls) had both scored half centuries in Brockhampton's total of 219.

After Ali trapped the dangerous Burdon leg-before for a duck, the Ombersley batsman took control to lift the score to 160-5. Ali (5-74 off 23 overs) and Parker (4-77 off 20) bounced back to dismiss the final five batsman for just 17 runs. Dave Price took the other wicket.

Desperately needing a win after last week's washout, Alan Butterworth produced a fine all-round performance to lead Kington to a comfortable 117-run success against Bewdley at the Recreation Ground, and reduce the gap at the top to four points.

Tom Brierley (41), Dave Exall (25) and Butterworth (38) put the home side in a strong position at 112-3 after losing the toss. With the exception of youngster Sam Williams, undefeated on 35, the tail was blown away as Kington were bowled out for 166 in the 45th over.

With five additional overs at their disposal, Bewdley made a cautious start to their innings, and when they started to look for runs the wickets started to tumble. Only Simon Smith (21) offered any resistance to Butterworth (6-24 off 11 overs) and Kevin Gwynne (3-9 off 5.4) and they were sent packing for 49.

Eastnor bounced back from last week's heavy defeat at Chaddesley with an unexpectedly comfortable 34-run home win over Alvechurch and Hopwood after being bowled out for just 122.

In a game where only four batsman scored over 10, 14-year-old Josh Emery produced the top-score of the day. He came to the wicket at number eight with the score 68-6 after Shahid (10) had been the only batsmen in the top six to reach double figures. He joined forces with Christiaan Ferreira (32) in what turned out to be a crucial partnership that took the score to 103.

Sri Lankan quick bowler Lakshitha returned to the attack but it made no difference to Emery as he was stroked to the boundary in style. Emery was eventually last man out at 122 in the 39th over, while Lakshitha finished with the best figures of 4-38.

Emery then combined with Shahid to put the skids under the Alvechurch reply. They each took a wicket, and with Ferreira effecting a good run out, the score soon became 11-3. Lakshitha (24) and Spavin (31) dug in to seemingly turn the game back towards the visitors.

At this point Eastnor turned to the other end of the age scale, introducing veteran off-spinner Jim Sandford into the attack. He made the breakthrough to remove both batsmen. Shahid quickly returned to the attack and ripped through the lower order, leaving him with a final analysis of 6-31, including five clean bowled. Alvechurch were bowled out for 88 with Sandford taking 2-16 off seven overs.