STOURBRIDGE put themselves back in contention for promotion to Division One of the Birmingham and District League by beating Whitchurch last Saturday.

At one stage Stour were four down for 42 but recovered well to claim the win.

Stand in skipper Alex Bingham lost the toss for the second time and saw his top order collapse. His opening partner Steve Game was out playing on in the first over for a duck to Mohammed Ishtiaq, Bingham himself was also bowled by the same bowler for two , and the new number three Ryan Willets was caught behind for four off Zafran Ali.

Stour’s plight worsened losing Matt Bradley for 13 and Jitesh Jivan-Patel for a duck, both falling to the bowling of Ishtiaq.

Stour were deep in trouble once again at the half way stage on 71 for 5 off 25 overs. Audy Alexander (34) and Bilal Hassan (14) were not out.

Whitchurch failed to make further break throughs until the visitors' score had reached 154.

Alexander was the first to go when caught for 72 off Ijaz Yousaf. Forty two runs later, Hassan perished caught off Simon Dimelow just eight short of his maiden hundred for Stourbridge. Showing his best form of the season, Hassan’s runs came off 104 balls.

Whitchurch skipper Ishtiaq may well regret bowling out all his ten overs in the opening spell. He finished taking four for 26 and the flighty spinner Ijaz Yousaf took three for 36 off eight overs

Whitchurch’s innings followed a similar pattern losing six for 54 off 17 overs, but there was no rescue.

Ikram Mussadaq blasted out the top four Simon Bowen and the skipper out for ducks. Resistance came from Ijaz Yousaf (26) and the number nine Zaran Ai (26) but the visitors romped home to a 93 runs victory.

Mussadaq returned one of the best figures of the season taking 5 for 23 off 10 overs.

Stourbridge have pushed themselves into fourth position, 15 points adrift of the promotion spot with the last away fixture against Tamworth.

A win will give them 257 points. Whether that will be sufficient will not be known until the very last ball of the season.