HAGLEY CC continued their early season promise with a 67 run win over early Worcester League Division Two leaders Burghill and Tillington.

After being asked to bat first, openers Chad Hitchcock (57) and Simon James (16) got Hagley off to a solid start, before James was removed by Burghill opener Byron Newton (2-87).

Paul Morgan (35) joined Hitchcock at the crease as the pair guided Hagley to 110-1 and set a solid platform.

But Mark Preece (5-57) produced a devastating spell to leave Hagley reeling at 136-6 and it took a partnership of 99 between Joe Lennon (65) and John Porter (40) to dig them out of the hole.

Late blows from Ian Moss (15 not out) saw Hagley finish at 272-8 from their 50 overs.

Hagley then made an encouraging early breakthrough with the key wicket of Alex Hedges (7), who fell cheaply to Hitchcock (2-56).

Burghill's batsmen showed some fighting spirit, with Tim Walsh (85) trying to fill the void left by the early wicket.

But John Porter (4-44) picked up two wickets in two balls and with Amjad Ali (4-47) starting to rip through the middle order, the writing was on the wall. Hitchcock returned to pick up the last wicket as Burghill were dismissed for 205 in the 44th over.

The result moved Hagley up to third, ahead of their trip to Wormelow on Saturday before a home clash with new league leaders Colwall on Monday.

Delighted skipper Rus Andrews said: “Another professional performance has seen us beat the early season leaders with our lower order showing they can chip in if our middle order fails.

“The early wicket of Hedges was crucial and the bowlers completed the job well.

“Everything looks good so far and we hope to push on with two more results over the coming weekend.”

n Hagley second team travelled to Worcester Nomads with a weakened side due to a high amount of unavailability. But the young team managed to gain a losing draw.

Skipper Steve Plant won the toss and chose to bowl first. But on short square boundaries the Nomads batsmen came out to make him pay for that decision.

The returning Rob Hancock (1-71) bowled some promising stuff and Simon Burgess (0-39) also produced a decent opening spell. Yet keeping control of the scoring rate was always difficult as Ollie Swift (102) lead the way with some fantastic strokeplay.

He was well supported by Andy Leach (57) and Geoff Taylor (20 not out) as Nomads amassed 324-4 in 44 overs before declaring.

This left the inexperienced Hagley outfit a target of 243 off 56 overs to gain the losing draw.

A solid opening partnership between Ian Watt (24) and Rob Hancock (23) was ended by the latest run out involving the former.

Tom Jordan (91) batted sensibly throughout the innings and was ably supported by Fady Jadayel (63) as the pair worked together to achieve the target scoring at five an over. However, Jadayel fell and Andy Shaw (16) came to support Jordan, with the pair getting within 12 of the required target before Shaw fell.

Jordan was joined by skipper Steve Plant (5 not out) who helped the score along to 243 before Jordan was out in the last over.

A valuable losing draw to try and get the season going for Hagley seconds, who host last year's winners Astwood Bank on Saturday before travelling to fellow strugglers Colwall on Bank Holiday Monday.