Halesowen CC came way the happiest from their tight derby day encounter with Old Hill at Seth Somers Park on Saturday.

The hosts who have had a difficult start to their Birmingham League Division One season were underdogs for the clash against their top of the table neighbours.

Old Hill won the toss, fielded first, and made early inroads into the Halesowen batting line-up, by picking up three early wickets.

Laeq Chishti, playing against his old club, then steadied the innings and after taking 26 balls to get off the mark proceeded to crash 103 from the next 80 balls, including 12 fours and five sixes.

The hosts closed their innings on 197-7, with Australian spinner Chris Hansbery the pick of the Old Hill bowlers with 3-76.

In reply, Old Hill also lost early wickets, the first three falling to Chishti, and were five wickets down, before Worcestershire's Richard Jones and captain Karl Pearson dug in to halt the slide.

After Jones was out, Pearson (51) and Duncan Willetts (39 not out) almost got Old Hill home, but in a tense finish, their innings closed eight runs short of the target, on 190 -7.

Chishti underlined his man-of-the-match performance taking 4-54, well backed up by Imran Ali's spell of 3-44.

Despite picking up the winning draw, Halesowen remain in 11th spot, while Old Hill remain in top spot although their lead is now down to just six points.

Halesowen captain Mark Fisher said: "After a disappointing start to the season, the lads showed great character to get the better of the game against a good Old Hill side who have been on top form.

"Laeq Chishti's contribution was immense, and let's hope that this proves to be the turning point of our season."

This coming Saturday, Halesowen travel to Coventry and North Warwick, who lie one place above them in the table, while Old Hill host Dorridge.

The respective second teamfixture at Haden Hill again saw Halesowen walking away with a winning draw.

Having lost the toss and been asked to bat first on a surprisingly damp surface, Halesowen were soon in trouble losing Mapstone and Hutchinson cheaply. The inning was stabilised briefly by Leon Everett and Shazhad Ali, but Everett soon fell which brought Chris Round to the wicket. Round went on to top score with 62 out of a total of 182 all out with good support from Ali (42) and Tromans (27).

Old Hill set off at a brisk pace with Adam Bending and ex-Halesowen player Mohammad Shoaib taking some well-run quick singles. However, in a devastating opening spell, Harry Williams removed both players clean bowled.

From that point on there was only going to be one winner and excellent bowling and fielding by the visitors wasn't quite enough to force the victory. Old Hill finished on 132-8. Zain Shahid again stood out with figures of 4-21.

Hales skipper Steve Baker said: "It was again pleasing to see us bat when the going was tough, especially having been put in to bat.

"Our performance in the field was again up to the high standards of last week and this augurs well for the remainder of the first half of the season."

This coming Saturday Halesowen seconds will entertain Kenilworth Wardens at Seth Somers Park, while Old Hill will travel to Old Elizabethans.

There was some good news for Old Hill with their thirds winning away at Kidderminster.

The victory now means they have won four out of four.

Old Hill firsts weekend from bad to worse on Sunday after they were dumped out of the Cockspur Cup away at Knowle and Dorridge.

The visitors went from a promising position of having the hosts at 150-7 with 10 overs to go to allow them to finish a 277 from their 45 overs. This was followed by a dismal batting display and they were bowled out for 87 runs to complete a miserable weekend. However, the Sunday team saved the day with a magnificent victory over Netherton at Haden Hill. Netherton scored 196-9 off their 37 overs and in reply, thanks to a partnership of 175 between Matt Colwell 101 not out and Tom Rock 78 not out, they won by eight wickets with one over to spare.