South Staffordshire round-up: Cannock beat the rain and pick up important 16 points in relegation battle
Cannock picked up a vital 16 points at the weekend in the only game to beat the weather in the South Staffordshire County League.
Playing against relegation rival Lichfield, Cannock were put into bat by the home side and they battled to 191 all out in the wet conditions.
That was largely thanks to Andrew Le Feaver, who made 43 from 66 balls, and Muhammad Sultan, who ended up 53 not out from 69 balls.
Zayn Hussain was the pick of the bowlers for the home side he took 4-47 from the 15 overs he bowled.
Lichfield ended up being nine down in reply for 135, meaning Cannock narrowly missed out on a valuable win rather than a winning draw.
Gregory Mahlokwana took three wickets with John Cooke and Ryan Elliott both collecting two apiece.
The result means Cannock remain bottom of the table on 51 points, but they trail Lichfield by just two.
At the other end of the division, Hammerwich remain top of the league, but by a slim four-point margin.
They picked up six points at Fordhouses in a game which fell victim to the weather.
Fordhouses had put themselves in a good position though before the weather intervened as their top four all made half centuries.
Niall Cooper (79), Mubeen Rashid (69), Matthew Gallear (60) and Sachin Jayawardena (70) meant the home side made 294-4 from their allocation.
Hammerwich were 19-0 in the sixth over when the game came to a conclusion.
Milford Hall now trail the league leaders by four points after they picked up 12 in a rain-affected clash at Beacon.
The home side made 137-6 from 23 overs as Dan Green made 62 not out from 47 balls. Milford did their best to get the total, with Sahal Malvernkar smashing 51 from 23 balls, but they ended up 119-6.
An entertaining second innings was on the cards between Pelsall and Tamworth seconds in their match before rain cruelly cut it short.
The home side had made 228-5 from their 49 overs with Jake Lee (56), Gurshan Singh (56) and Smit Mehta (58) all making half-centuries.
The reply was well-poised with the visitors on 64-1 from 17 overs, Daniel Baker was 29 not out and Sam Kinson was 19 not out.
Wombourne and Wolverhampton’s seconds both took eight points away from their clash. Wombourne batted first and made 219-8 from 48 overs - Jack Stanley starred with the ball as he took 5-74 from his 14 overs. The reply only lasted three overs with Wolves 10-0 when the rain finished proceedings for the day.
Penkridge’s clash at Walsall saw the day’s least amount of action. They only managed to get 22 overs in before the rain ended the game prematurely.
Penkridge had made their way to 71-0 in that time thanks to 34 not out from Andy Jones and 28 not out from Amaan Hassan.
