Brockhampton and Eastnor in Birmingham League mid-table finishes (From Hereford Times)

Brockhampton and Eastnor in Birmingham League mid-table finishes

12:00pm Thursday 20th September 2012 in Sport

HEREFORDSHIRE’S two leading sides have finished in comfortable mid-table positions in their respective divisions despite contrasting last-day fortunes.

Brockhampton were unfortunate to have to travel to Premier Division champions Walsall on the final day of the season and returned with a six-wicket defeat.

Eastnor , in contrast, entertained another mid-table Division Two side, Halesowen, and emerged as 35-run winners in a high-scoring encounter.

Brockhampton opener Adam Hewlett looked as if he intended to win the game on his own after Walsall won the toss and invited the villagers to bat first.

Although he quickly lost opening partner Ben Stebbings, Hewlett moved smoothly to 58 from just 64 balls with nine fours and a six.

But of the remainder of the top six, only Henry Langford (11) reached double figures as the visitors slipped from 77-2 to 82-7.

A late rally led by Tom Austwick (29) helped to produce a final score of 129.

With James Middleton (60) spearheading their reply, Walsall were rarely troubled as they moved to 107-1.

And despite a couple of wickets each for spinners Charlie Griffiths (2-44) and skipper Owen Price (2-18), they eased home with only just over half of their allotted overs used up.

Eastnor piled up the runs after winning the toss and electing to bat against Halesowen.

An uncertain start saw three early wickets go down but the prolific Atiq Ur Rehman (87) provided the principal contribution while Mohammed Adeel (56) also passed the half-century mark.

Shahid Ahmed (25) and Dawud Ahmed (20 not out) helped to stretch the score to 264-7.

Shahid (2-55) and Adeel (2-22) made early inroads to the Halesowen reply but Mohammed Ramzan (87) and Kester Moseley (44) kept the visitors in with a chance of a pulling off an unlikely victory.

Atiq (3-47) and teenager Suleyman Shah (2-25) ran through the lower order, however, to leave Eastnor wondering how close they might have been to promotion had not all four of their matches against the two relegated sides not been rained off.

In the second Xl competition, Brockhampton hammered Old Elizabethans by 161 runs and topped the Division Two South table to round off an impressive season for the club.

The villagers’ third and fourth teams had already been crowned as champions in their divisions in the GB Liners Marches League.