STUART Wedge admits Himley’s current batting woes have left him stumped.

The Stourbridge Road outfit suffered their third defeat on the spin at Kidderminster Victoria last Saturday as they were once again bowled out cheaply.

Skipper Wedge admits he is struggling to nail down the cause of the problems.

He said: “Once again we did a great job with the ball but failed to back it up with the bat.

“We got off to a pretty decent start but we are finding silly ways to get out.

“In the Birmingham Premier League you want to make the bowlers work to get you out but we are throwing our wickets away.

“It’s strange because you look at our batting line-up and on paper it is strong.

“The players we have got are good players but for whatever reason they are not putting the scores up.”

After Wedge won the toss and put the hosts into bat, Himley’s bowlers did a good job of gradually wearing down a stong Kidderminster batting line-up which included Worcestershire trio Matt Pardoe, Neil Pinner and Ben Cox.

Nick Harrison took 5-48 as Kidderminster were restricted to 235 all out from 55 overs.

Despite openers Greg Wright (26) and Chris Tranter (15) making a start, Himley’s middle order have no resistance. Nathan Round top scored with an unbeaten 42 as the visitors were dismissed for 126 to lose by 109 runs.

Wedge admits Saturday’s home game with Shresbury is now a very big game.

He said: “We need to put in a performance. If we fail again with the bat it will be four in a row and as the weeks go by it will get harder and harder to turn it around.

“We need to dig in and get a big score.

“At the moment nobody is taking hold of the game. We need someone to make 70 or 80 to really anchor the innings.

“We are at home so will probably be a little more confident.”

Himley could be boosted by the return of spinner Mike Jones, while former Worcestershire batsman Ben Smith could make his first appearance of the season.

Smith has played for Himley the past two seasons but is only available on selected weekends this term because of his commitments as batting coach at Leicestershire.