Cooke fires Newtown to points

Newtown returned to positive territory with a Shropshire Division One winning draw at Shifnal who held out with a wicket to spare at the end.

After being put in to bat, Newtown raced to 214-7 with Sam Cooke (54), David Laird (26), Ryan Davies (25), Tom Anderson (36) and John Anthony (21) all among the runs.

The bowlers got stuck in and shared the wickets around, but the Shropshire side held out on 129-9.

In Division Two, Welshpool found runs hard to come by as they chased Worfield’s 152-7. With extras top scoring on 24, the reply fell well short on 93-9 for a lesser share of the points.

Montgomery were beaten by eight wickets at Lilleshall on Saturday. The Lymore-based club batted first but were all out for 105, with Rob Bennett top scoring on 25.

The home side took just over 30 overs to chase down the total for the loss of two wickets.

In Division Five, Montgomery II were also beaten despite setting Market Drayton a total of 175 to win.

Matthew Jones top scored for Montgomery with 65, with George Corfield making 29 in what was an excellent opening partnership between the pair.

In reply, the visiting team scored 176-2 thanks to an unbeaten 101 from their skipper, Nigel Wellings.

Newtown II were also put to the sword after setting a target of just 124 for Condover to chase. Sam Morris (40) and Tom Foulkes (32) accounted for most of the runs.

In reply, the bowlers had a good go at it, but the visitors eventually made it home with three wickets in the tank.

There was high drama at Guilsfield & Llandrinio who edged their way to a Division Six one-wicket win. With the game poised to go either way against Harcourt, Alex Parry (16no) found space through the slips to run a sharp two and secure victory at the death.

Earlier, Duncan Todd continued his good early season form with 5-39 to restrict the visitors to 139, and skipper Dave Lewis (44) and all-rounder Sam Birch (36) appeared to be steering the villagers home, but wickets collapsed to set up the thrilling finale.

Llanidloes returned from the long journey to Quatt III in Division Seven with the points to continue their winning start to the campaign.

The hosts posted a decent target of 163 to chase with Rob Davies (3-41), Ioan Swallow (2-22) and Eogan Jones (2-20) the pick of the bowlers.

Andrew Jones (27) and Lewis Swallow (17) got the reply off to a strong start before Rob Davies (70) put Llani in the driving seat with victory secured with three overs to spare.