BARNARDS Green claimed a 30-run victory over Halesowen at North End Lane in Birmingham League Division Two.

Halesowen won the toss and chose to field and Andy Wheeler and Adam Dovey opened the Barnards Green innings and began solidly, if a bit slowly.

Wheeler was first to fall in the 11th over with the score on 26 when he was lbw to Daniel Jeavons after being dropped the ball before.

Dovey and Phil Harris moved the total onto 47 before the former mis-timed a pull shot and was caught off Phillip Croft for 22.

After starting uncharacteristically slowly due to the conditions, Harris built his innings well supported briefly by Joshua Rurawhe and Mark Hooper. Harris was bowled for 34 by spinner Khan when the score was 98 and the Green suffered another middleorder collapse to fall to 100-7.

It was left to Chris Smedley and Jon Dovey to attempt to set a decent target with 17 overs still to go.

In a nicely-paced partnership, they progressed the total to 163-8 by the end of their 55 overs. Jon Dovey was caught in the deep off the last ball of the innings for 27, leaving Smedley 29 not out.

In response, Halesowen found the pace of the pitch difficult to judge, particularly when facing Harris, who took two quick wickets.

Firstly, he took a straight-forward caught-and-bowled chance to dismiss Hassan Quami for 14, then Hooper claimed a neat catch to send Lee Garghan back to the pavilion without troubling the scorers.

Jon Dovey then trapped Asif Khan lbw for 17 to leave Halesowen 36-3 and Williams brought himself on to give the excellent Harris a rest and bowled Kester Moseley for three.

Exploiting the entrance of spinners Smedley and Dannie Rees into the attack, Halesowen decided attack was the best form of defence.

Some aggressive batting from Croft (26) was ended by a smart stumping by Ashlea Brewer off Rees, but Wesley Griffiths continued at a pace, hitting two sixes to take Halesowen to 105-5 off 38 overs and within sight of the losing draw total of 131.

Smedley then took the key wicket of Griffiths, clean bowled for 16, and Williams took a calculated risk by bringing Harris back on early to pressure the new batsman.

He took a wicket in the first over of his second spell when Rees took an excellent catch at gully to dismiss Jack Warren. Jeavons and Mohammed Shauib stayed solid for five overs, before Harris swapped back to his favoured end and Jon Dovey returned to the attack.

Harris trapped Shauib lbw for 34 then Jon Dovey finished the job by taking two wickets in successive overs as Halesowen finished 133 all out in 49.1 overs, with BGCC claiming the full 24 points from the game.