EASTNOR have soared to third place in Division Two of the Birmingham League after having much the better of a winning draw at Water Orton.

"It's a strange situation," said club spokesman Malcolm Hughes. "Three weeks ago, we were in the bottom two but, if Attock had won their game on Saturday, then we would have been in the top two."

Eastnor were asked to bat first after losing the toss and got away to a solid start.

"It was a good hard wicket but the covers were taken off only five minutes before the start," said Hughes.

"There were a couple which went through the slips early on but Andrew Fisher batted well and made his 59 off 70 balls.

"He was second out at 111 but we batted well down the order and Tareq Jamil gave us a late flurry with 45 not out from 30 balls."

Atiq ur Rehman (42), skipper Clive Chadhani (38), Shahid Ahmed (30) and Sunil Rahi (27) also made useful contributions.

Although Shahid, knee injury, was not fit to bowl, Eastnor chipped away with Sajid and Shameer bowling steadily.

"Atiq bowled very well and, with the harder pitch giving him a bit more bounce," said Hughes.

"He got his flipper going well and had three lbw decisions."

Water Orton were reasonably placed at 183-5 after 45 overs, in comparison with Eastnor's 189-4 at the same stage.

But a flurry of wickets caused them to abandon the chase and leave Eastnor with the winning draw.