STOURBRIDGE notched up their first win since the end of May by beating third-placed Brewood in Division Two of the Birmingham League.

The well earned 20 points mean Stour go up just one place to seventh on 144 points.

Penkridge (189) and Leamington Spa (218) head the field.

Richard Bradley won the toss and put the home side in to bat on a dry track. Brewood soon found themselves deep in trouble losing the top order on a sound batting pitch.

Stour had put the squeeze on grabbing six Brewood wickets for just 79 runs, Ikram Mudassaq doing the damage bagging five in his opening spell of 11 overs for 43.

He had both the openers, Richard Hewitt and Lewis Jelfs, caught for a duck and three respectively.

Once number three Andrew Day was trapped lbw by the Audy Alexander for 15, Brewood’s middle order tried extravagant shots to rescue them.

That strategy worked until Mussadaq struck again in his seventh over as he bowled skipper Cameron Fox for 22 and in the same over had Chris Tranter smartly caught in the deep for 23. For his fifth wicket he had Richard Rawlinson lbw for 7.

Late order batsmen Luke Bird (12), Dave Wedge (31), and Robbie Byrne (12) played out valuable overs but still gave away five extra overs as they left Stour to chase 139.

Stourbridge opener Alex Bingham gave his side a perfect start by smashing the first ball from Dave Wedge to the off-side boundary.

Bingham then despatched the third delivery between cover and mid-off for a second four. With the extras on offer the first over produced 11 runs making Brewood effort look insignificant.

Wedge had his revenge when Bingham was trapped lbw on 10 with the team score on 21 in the fourth over.

Steve Game once again looked in superb nick with his skipper consolidating the score. Bradley looked equally calm as he hit a magnificent six only to be out to a soft dismissal caught in the covers off Robbie Byrne soon after. Game carried on with Audy Alexander taking his personal score to 40.

He was eventually caught in the covers from the bowling of Byrne to leave Stour with an awkward 43 run deficit with three wickets down.

Alexander, as aggressive as ever, kept the score ticking over but wickets tumbled around him. Josh Banks (2), Matt Bradley (6) and Jitesh Patel (6) all fell cheaply.

With pressure building, Alexander continued to chip away at the target with the occasional boundary to relieve the pressure.

There was still on moment of drama when, with just three runs required for victory and Brewood needing three wickets, David Wedge shattered Alexander's stumps.

However, the umpire ruled that Wedge had clipped the bails off in his bowling stride and declared a no ball. Alexander took advantage of the next ball scoring a boundary to seal the win.