STOURBRIDGE finished the season on a high note by beating promoted Astwood Bank last Saturday.

Stour finished fifth from bottom in Division Three of the Birmingham and District League to avoid relegation into the Worcestershire league.

Asked to bat first on their home pitch, Stour went on to score 188 for 8 off 50 overs. Alex Bingham (23), Zain Ul Hassan (40), skipper Josh Banks (48) and Jade Richter (31) provided the runs.

Astwood Bank's reply started badly as Jade Richter struck with the wickets of Tom Pedley (2), Steve Adshead (3) and Sam Thomas (0) with consecutive deliveries.

A budding partnership of 45 was broken by Luke Alexander as he bowled Ryan Blakemore for 40 in the 28th over. After Jitesh Jivan-Patel had removed Pete Alexander for 35 the visitors were 113 for 7 needing 75 runs off 38th over.

Stour's bowling was reminiscent of the start of the season and saw them to an easy win by 64 runs in the 43 over. Richter snapped up four wickets for 26 runs off his 10 over spell.