WES GRIFFITHS will come face to face with the club he grew up at on Saturday (noon) for the first time in the Birmingham Premier League.

The Halesowen skipper welcomes Stourbridge to Seth Somers Park for a game crucial to both sides, especially his own, after two straight Division Two defeats.

The latest of those came on Saturday at Eastnor where the hosts made a gettable 183 before the visitors collapsed to 22-4 and finally were bowled out for 105, the second week running they have misfired with the bat.

Griffiths knows Saturday will be tough with his old club full of confidence after two consecutive wins.

He said: ”I spent 10 years at Stourbridge and the club means a lot to me so I would really like to put in a good performance and beat them.

“I didn’t leave there in a bad way and still have friends there, but on the field there will be no part of me that wants anything other than a Halesowen win, then afterwards we can catch up, that’s how cricket should be.”

But local derby and sentiment apart Griffiths, who left Stourbridge for Halesowen in 2009, is focused on his own side getting back to the sort of form they showed when winning three matches on the trot prior to their current blip.

“It’s two poor batting performances in a row but three weeks ago we were full of confidence having chased 260 odd. Indiviually I don’t think we have done a lot wrong and I’m not sure the confidence of some of the batters is that low.

“I think it’s just a case of us going back to basics, playing how we can, and if we do I’m sure we can get a result against Stourbridge.

“I would probably have been thinking this was more of a special game had it not been for the last two defeats but at the minute I’m just looking for a result and it doesn’t matter who that comes against.”

Shahid Ahmed took three wickets in an over as Halesowen looked to recover following the departure of in-form Mohammed Ishtiaq to the first ball of the second over and despite 31 from Ryan Beaumont they never recovered as Mohammad Adeel removed half the top order on the way to an impressive 4-18 haul.

“Credit to them, they bowled well, we didn’t really get out to bad shots,” said Griffiths. “We probably let them get 20 or 30 too many but we still thought 183 was gettable, but from 22-4 it seems a long way away.

“We’ve had our ups and downs this season, let’s hope this weekend is it’s an up.”