Halesowen’s stuttering season seems slowly to be getting into gear after a nail-biting victory over Staffordshire side Wombourne and Chairman Richard Evans is quietly pleased with general all round progress at the club this season.

Commenting after the weekends matches he said ‘ the first team are finding a way to win in difficult circumstances which is the sign of a ‘team’ staying together and Eddie Rhodes and Dylan Ross-Watt have batted brilliantly in recent weeks showing determination and a cool head. Outside of that I took time out this weekend to observe our second team and to see what the future holds. I really enjoyed the game against top-of-of the table Wolverhampton. It was a real pleasure being around a team full of young energy and had we had the rub of the green on some early umpiring decisions I genuinely believe we would have knocked them off their perch.

In Captain Joe Tromans they have a good role model in how to enjoy the game and we have a decent blend of young and old in the team from which we can see the next generation emerging. Our results in the lower teams this weekend don’t look too clever but broadly the club is in a good place and with around 200 people at the club on Friday nights as part of our revamped Junior section set-up and the new All Stars programme we are immensely proud of what we are trying to do for the game. Our next challenge is to increase our overall playing standards, quantity and quality of players and I will be looking closely at that over the second half of the season with various people who run the Cricket side of the club – I look around at other clubs and compare where we are and have concluded we have lots of things in place which will give us a sound platform for the club for many years and are well-set. ’

The Wombourne game was a tight affair with the home team all out for just 172 in 52 overs. Captain Richard Brooker was the destroyer this week with a tidy 4-43 from 12 overs backed up by Ross Watt and Masharaff Shazad with 2 wickets apiece. Halesowen who were without the absent Kilbee struggled early on against Dale Quiney (4 for 37) in particular but a stand of 80 for the eighth wicket between Dylan Ross-Watt (41 not out) and Eddie Rhodes (40) eased them near enough to close out the game. Halesowen move up to 6th in the table 46 points behind the promotion places in a very open division.

The second team fought out a tense battle with Wolverhampton. Batting first Halesowen were all out for 156 with only Jack Roberson (38) and Richard Cox (35) coming to terms with the Wolves spin attack but the very young Halesowen bowling attack led by left arm spinner Tony Bullock (2-32) from 15 tight overs and leg spinner Archie Reeves (2-3) made Wolves fight all the way for victory by just 3 wickets. The second XI are 11th but with plenty to play for over the coming weeks.

The thirds and the fourths went down to losses in their games but Ben Dunn (43) Alex Jordan (34) and the incapacitated Luke Miley (65) were the stars in the 3rd XI total of 217 whilst Raqeeb Khan (5-24) held the 4th XI bowling together in a defeat to Tenbury CC.

Next weekends fixtures

1st XI 12:00 start - (H) Old Elizabethans CC - 1st XI - Seth Somers Park, Halesowen
2nd XI 12:30 start - (A) Walmey CC - 2nd XI
3rd XI 13:00 start - (H) Claverley CC – 1st XI - Earls High School, Halesowen
4th XI 13:00 start - (A) Claverley CC - 2nd XI