BARNARDS Green first XI welcomed Bewdley to their North End Lane ground for the return WCL division one fixture.

BARNARDS GREEN v BEWDLEY

Bewdley invited the home side to bat first under an ominously overcast sky, but on a firm, dry wicket.

The openers, Rich Williams and Kev Golder, settled into another solid opening partnership making 110 runs in the first 20 overs.

Golder (36) was the first to go, bowled by J Boult, leaving Rich Williams, on 64no, to be joined by Paul Drinkwater.

Faced now by some very accurate spin bowling, in particular from J Mills supported by Boult, and under increasingly heavy skies, wickets started to fall.

First to go was Rich Williams (70), then Paul Drinkwater (9) and finally Tim Clarke (1) all of them to the good bowling spell of J Mills. This left the Green suddenly on 128-4, when, with a bang, the storm arrived forcing play to be suspended.

An early tea was taken at 3pm followed by a lot of mopping up, to make it possible for the two captains and the umpires to agree that in spite of conditions being less than perfect, play could resume at 4.10pm by reducing the overs for each side to 44.

The restart saw Rob McCard and Adam Binks faced with the task of rebuilding the innings, to give the Green a chance of a result.

Both batsmen responded magnificently with some lusty hitting, amassing 110 runs from 75 balls leaving the innings total at 238, with Rob McCard (51no) and Adam Binks (49no) when the storm returned and the match had to be abandoned.

What had promised to be a good contest at the start was cut short with Bewdley's batsmen not getting the chance to respond to a competitive first innings total, leaving Barnards Green with nine points and Bewdley with six.

Tomorrow (Saturday), Barnards Green firsts are away at Astwood Bank, starting at 1.30pm.