Ben Hudson shines as Worfield edge closer to title glory

A comfortable seven-wicket success at Frankton coupled with a defeat for Sentinel, saw Will Cook’s side move 51 points clear at the top of the standings with just four fixtures remaining.

Worfield’s spinners were in fine form yet again as hosts Frankton were dismissed for 129. Winter recruit Ben Hudson took centre stage on this occasions as he bagged 5-19 while fellow tweaker Matthew Rees took 2-8 as Frankton collapsed after being 90-2 at one stage thanks to Thomas Wilkie (40) and Scott Hale (38).

A fine unbeaten 78 from Basit Zaman then saw Worfield home inside 24 overs.

Sentinel slipped down to third place following a one-wicket defeat away to Whitchurch.

Batting first, Marc Lovelock (45) and Lloyd Edwards (31) shared a 56-run seventh-wicket stand to help Sentinel to 161-9 from their 50 overs.

Kashif Hussain (3-23) and Elliott Bowen (3-24) were the pick of the home attack.

Whitchurch then found themselves in trouble at 118-7 in reply, but Bowen (45) and Ryan Brown (23) joined forces for a valuable 39-run partnership.

And although they both fell with the score on 157, last pair Hussain and Daniel Bowen saw the hosts over the line.

Quatt jumped above Sentinel into second place thanks to a three-wicket triumph at home to Ludlow.

South African ace Jason Oakes shone with the bat for Ludlow, top scoring with 87 in their total of 180-6. Alex Biddle picked up 3-26 for the home side.

Quatt’s reply got off to a disappointing start at they lost both openers without a run on the board. They continued to struggle in the face of some impressive Ludlow bowling, most notably from Luke Miles (3-23), but Scott Furber stood firm for the hosts.

Furber ended unbeaten on 70 , sharing a crucial seventh-wicket stand of 58 with Dan Plank (28), as Quatt took the spoils.

Madeley’s impressive season continued with an 80-run success at home to Allscott Heath.

Batting first, Madeley posted 246-8 from their 50 overs with skipper James Ralph leading by example.

The experienced former Shropshire batsman made 70 while Imesh Udayanga added 56 and Jonathan Prince 29.

Allscott made an impressive start to their reply with openers Tom Matthews (52) and Chris Birkett adding 74 for the first wicket.

But once they fell, the rest of the visitors’ batting line-up didn’t offer much resistance as they were dismissed for 166. Prince crowned an impressive display by picking up 4-22.

Wellington were the day’s other winners, beating hosts Shelton by 68 runs.

Luke Goring top scored for Wellington with 60 while opener Tom Masters made 45 as they were dismissed for 234 in the 48th over. Muhammad Jahangir claimed three victims for the cost of 31 runs.

A number of Shelton batsman made starts – Ben Matthews (31), Jack Morris (29), Ben Roberts (28) and Pabel Kumar Saha (27) – but no one went on to play a match-winning knock as the home side fell for 166.

Adithya Manigandan impressed with the ball, picking up 3-19, while Tom Ellis also bagged three wickets at a cost of 34 runs.