HAGLEY continued their strong start to the Worcestershire County League Division One season with winning draw at Burghill and Tillington.

Home captain Mark Preece won the toss and asked Hagley to bat first.

Joe Lennon went for a duck but a 92-run partnership between James Spavin (56) and James Trinham (50) saw Hagley into a decent position.

Although both fell, Oliver Maxwell (57) and Amjad Ali (120 not out) took the attack to the bowling with the former looking stylish in scoring his first 50 for the club, while Ali continued his excellent early season batting form with six sixes in his unbeaten century.

Once Maxwell was dismissed Paul Morgan (31) and Jamie Perks (14 not out) added further acceleration to allow Morgan to declare on a sizable 356-5.

A break for rain shortened the home side’s innings to 41 overs but Hagley still had an eye on outright victory with James Russell (2-25) taking early wickets.

Amjad (1-40) then trapped John Terry lbw but a further heavy rain shower sent the players to the pavilion with the score 51-3.

At the resumption a total of 30 overs remained with a target of 164 for the batting side to gain two extra points for the losing draw.

Hagley captain Morgan immediately turned to the spin of Neil Hurst (4-59) who took two quick wickets giving Hagley a chance of the full 24 points. Dave Painter removed the dangerous Walsh with an excellent caught and bowled, Hurst then took two more wickets, while John Porter (1-11) also gained one from his single over but they had to settle for 18 points as they could not grab the final wicket in the last over.

Hagley sit second in the table and host Redditch this week.

Oldswinford slipped to a heavy defeat at Redditch despite a defiant unbeaten 67 by Tom Blunt.

The home side putting together a score of 243-9 with the visitors then dismissed for 127 with James Bevan (4-25) and Perry Derrick (4-43) doing most of the damage.

Oldswinford are at home to Belbroughton on Saturday.

Pedmore are in the bottom two after a seven-wicket defeat at Belbroughton.

They were well in the game after setting a score of 250-9 but David King hit an unbeaten 123 to add to his earlier 4-72 to take the game.

Next up for Pedmore is a home game with Worcester Dominoes.