Wellesbourne v Broadway – Premier Division, Saturday 18th August Wellesbourne 1st v Broadway 1st – Premier Division, Saturday 11th August Broadway (4) 108 all out lost to Wellesbourne (19) 109 for 7, by 3 wickets. Broadway’s recent poor run ultimately continued, although they produced a far more resilient and gutsy display than the previous week, and saw Wellesbourne maintain their foothold in the title shake up. The home side won the toss and asked Broadway to bat first on a wicket which looked a good one from the boundary, but had plenty of moisture beneath the surface and offered lots of assistance to the bowlers. With batsmen facing lateral movement off the pitch and in the air and the outfield being fluffier than Hashim Amla’s beard runs were scarce early on. The Broadway top order all struggled with G Evans (8) and N Evans (5) both falling in unfortunate circumstances playing on and Beale’s patient vigil ended as he lost patience and was stumped off Wheeler (2 for 16). Youngster Luke McDonagh, promoted from the seconds illustrated his undoubted promise with an innings full of belief and perseverance as he battled hard to score 18. When Powell came to the crease Broadway’s total of 30 off 25 overs looked incredibly meagre but it was indicative of the difficulty of the conditions. Powell batted assuredly and mixed his natural attacking lustre with stout defence to produce a top scoring 23, and he and Humpston 18 managed to up the tempo sufficiently to lift the total beyond three figures. T Stevenson managed his customary batch of wickets claiming 3 for 22 as Wellesbourne, vitally for them claimed the bonus of bowling Broadway out for under 120. When Wellesbourne’s reply started, the normally free scoring Maynard found it as difficult as his Broadway counterparts had, and emphasised the folly of the “test match” jibes that had earlier ensued. They managed to reach 30 before any loss despite Powell (1 for 15) and Smallman’s (1 for 26) valiant endeavour. Both continually beat the bat and bowled without fortune. They were ably assisted by Stewart (3 for 28), Beale (1 for 19) and Pedley (1 for 6) as Broadway aided by some remarkable slip fielding chipped away at the Wellesbourne batting. As the day had progressed the wicket and outfield dried and made scoring slightly easier and J Maynard’s 26 and Shearsby not out 19, steered them home safely but not without alarm to a hard fought 3 wicket win at the end of their 40th over. The win maintained Wellesbourne’s prominent 3rd place but with Earlswood and Bretforton claiming more emphatic wins they slipped slightly further off the pace. Broadway will try to return to winning ways at Shipston this week.