AFTER suffering heavy defeats against Warwickshire on the last two occasions that the counties met, Herefordshire under-16 turned in a much-improved performance to go down by just 17 runs in their final game of the season.

Warwickshire, who are coached by former New Zealand Test star Mark Greatbatch, won the toss and chose to bat but were kept in check by opening bowlers Tom Austwick and Chris Wheeler and change-bowlers Luke Cross and Ed Smith so that they had reached just 96-4 from 30 overs.

Mike King's accurate off-spin, which returned 1-27 from 10 overs, piled further pressure on and at 136-5 with 10 of their 50 overs remaining, Warwickshire seemed in trouble, only to rally to 211 all out.

A hard-hitting 54 from Andy Aston helped the Herefordshire reply to 93-3 at the halfway point but rash shots in the middle order saw a disappointing collapse.

Smith (43) batted well in the later stages of the innings but Herefordshire still finished short, closing on 194-9.