MALVERN v OLDSWINFORD

MALVERN slumped to a humiliating nine-wicket defeat at home to Oldswinford in Crusader Worcestershire County League Division Two after an embarassingly bad batting display.

Malvern lost in-form opener Andrew Cullen early on, then Mark Baugh and Ollie Bendall took the score to 39 before Baugh fell.

Rob Francis soon followed and when Bendall was out for 18 and skipper Luke Halion was trapped lbw, Malvern had collapsed to 45-5. They were eventually all out for just 73.

Oldswinford had little difficulty in getting the runs required despite some fine spells from Francis, Jeremy Lee and Tom Poole.

n Malvern entertained Cheltenham Saracens and were narrowly defeated by 12 runs in an entertaining contest.

Cheltenham batted first and found runs hard to come by against some superb swing bowling from Steve Whittaker and Andy Croft.

Phil Heritage and Charlie Heritage also bowled well as a fine partnership between Finch (58) and White (54) saw the visitors to 191.

Malvern started brightly with Richard Cullen in good form. Francis and Steven Carter both batted well but when they departed the target proved just beyond them.