DROITWICH opened their league campaign with emphatic victories for both first and second teams on Saturday.

The Firsts beat Belbroughton by 60 runs in Worcestershire Division One, with Australian Dave Lane making a welcome return to the Spa fold by scoring 60 and leg-spinner Jake Young picking up five wickets.

Lane, who played for Droitwich three years ago as a teenager, looks like he has come back a stronger player and attacked the bowling with vigour.

His innings built on a key third-wicket stand of 65 between Max Young (45) and Paul Bryan (36), with the home side’s total of 241-7 further boosted by decent contributions from Ash Fearnall and Phil Thomas.

Young and Thomas claimed early scalps in the Belbroughton reply before a useful third wicket stand looked as though it might enable the visitors to pinch a draw.

But once captain Martyn Davies had snared the dangerous Pardoe, his fellow spinnerJake Young ripped through the tail with the support of an excellent fielding display from his team-mates – Thomas taking a hat-trick of catches and veteran Paul Bryan rolling back the years to snaffle a blinder to secure the victory.

Seconds captain Karl Goddard led from the front as Droitwich crushed Alvechurch and Hopwood by 151 runs.

The under-12s got the better of Bromsgrove in a friendly.