FOURTEEN-year-old Josh Emery played a prominent role to steer Eastnor to a narrow three-wicket home win over local rivals Luctonians in Division 1 of the Crusader Worcestershire County League.

Making his first team debut and coming in at number eight with Eastnor requiring 25 to win, he soon found himself batting with his father, Steve, when a seventh wicket went down. He took control of the situation to finish 19 not out, and even had the audacity to complete the game with a six in the 48th over.

Earlier, the home team had generally found runs hard to come by, especially off the bowling of Ed Rollings who finished with 5-62 off 19.5 overs, chasing a target of 173. Adeel (29), Danny Baker (24 off 30 balls), Arshad (29) and Christiaan Ferreira (48) built the innings to set up the win.

Luctonians lost a wicket in the first over when they batted first after losing the toss. Opener Greg Powell (35) and Rollings (22) helped to retrieve the situation but at 96-5 the innings was in the balance. Jonathan Davis (34) and Vinnie Kay (31) compiled a partnership of 65 before the final five wickets went down for 11 runs chasing late runs.

They were all out for 172 in the final over with Shahid (5-35 off 16.3 overs) and Jabran (4-39) doing the damage for Eastnor.

Richard Parker took seven wickets to lead Brockhampton to their second win of the season at home to Astwood Bank. They dominated with both bat and ball and romped home by 119 runs after making 263-7 and bowling the visitors out for 144.

Nick Denny (54) and Dave Mokler (45) got the Brockhampton innings off to a blistering start with an opening partnership of 105 off just 17 overs. The home side soon found themselves four wickets down before skipper Andrew Watkins steadied the ship with 73 runs off 78 balls. He received good support from Johnny Walker (26) and Dave Price (20 not out).

Astwood Bank were never in the hunt when they batted after tea, losing wickets regularly against the accurate attack of Parker (7-55 off 17 overs) and Mohammed Ali (2-41 off 12) and were all out for 144 in the 35th over. Roy Wargen took the other wicket before retiring with a re-occurrence of his back injury.

Kington suffered their second successive defeat when they suffered a final-over, five-wicket reversal at the hands of Ombersley at the Recreation Ground. Ombersley finished on 183-5 in reply to Kington's 179 all out.

Opener Tom Brierley (78) was the mainstay of the Kington innings. Number three Dave Exall (23) helped him to take the score to 61 but then a steady fall of wickets left the home side all out in the final over, with Sam Williams (17) the other main contributor.

Off-spinners N Slade and C Flowers shared five wickets but the Kington cause was not helped by four run-outs.

Kevin Gwynne took a wicket in the third over before Duncan Catterall (90) and P Burdon (58) took the score to 150. Kington then tied the batsmen down and with six overs left the result was in doubt. Brierley took three wickets to complete a good game, but Ombersley squeezed home with five balls to spare.

Bromyard produced a fine team performance to maintain their excellent run of form in Division 2 with a first ever win at Netherton. Seven batsmen made double figures when they scored 206-8, and then five bowlers took wickets as the home team were bowled out for 135 in the 38th over leaving Bromyard winners by 71 runs.

Bromyard made steady progress on an unpredictable wicket after losing the toss. Edd Oliver batting at number three survived an early lbw appeal to score 50 and received sound support from Ashley Bullock (29), Pete Whittenbury (24), David Taylor (34) and Kevin Williams (30).

Zahid put the home team on the back-foot from the start with a quick spell that reaped a reward in his first over. Whittenbury followed up with two wickets as the home team stuttered to 88-3. Dave Stibbon used an agricultural approach to blast 41 runs to put the result back in the balance. After he was out to Whittenbury (4-67) the tail fell to spinner Dan Mills (2-2) and Dave Kyte.