A DAZZLING all-round performance by Dan Herbert and a brilliant 92 from Maurice Embrey helped Ledbury defeat a brave Garnons II side, who, despite having only nine players, could easily have won this Marches League game.

Having won the toss, skipper Ehrlich decided to bat and was immediately left to regret his decision as, through a combination of poor running, some loose shots and some excellent catching, his side found themselves at 48-5 and in difficulty.

This brought together Embrey, who had looked untroubled by the sometimes variable bounce, and Herbert and together the two set about repairing the considerable damage. Their batting was organised but aggressive with any poor delivery despatched to the boundary and good balls worked into the large gaps.

As the wicket flattened out, the run-rate shot up and the two made batting look easy. Embrey was first to reach his half-century, soon followed by Herbert. Then with a deserved century in sight and a stand of 150 shared, Embrey finally succumbed, caught for 92 (15 4s).

Following this wicket, the impetus fell a little from Ledbury's innings and wickets fell regularly, including that of Herbert for a mature innings of 79 (one 6 10 4s), his highest score for Ledbury.

Chasing 236, Garnons got off to a poor start as Herbert again was in the action to have Davies caught off the glove. Steve Evans took wickets with successive balls and at 20-3, an early finish looked likely. However, opener Brown looked in excellent form and with Morgan began to repair some of the damage before Morgan fell to loose shot off the bowling of Pritchard.

This was to be Ledbury's last success for 18 overs as Brown, who latched onto any loose bowling, and Jay, whose unorthodox leg-side hitting frustrated Ledbury, put together a stand of 94 to move Garnons within sight of victory.

In this period Ledbury grew ragged, missed two run outs and didn't look like getting the breakthrough. Herbert was then brought back and he produced a devastating spell of bowling to clean up the innings and win the match by 45 runs.

Jay was beaten for pace and lobbed a cut to Pritchard, then Brown, who was hampered by a leg injury, was also caught cutting for 74 (13 4s).

Herbert then mopped up the remaining two wickets, knocking over Eames and Newton's middle stumps for figures of 5-32 off his 10 overs.

Tomorrow (Saturday), Ledbury visit Wormelow.