DROITWICH Spa were well-beaten by 58 runs at old rivals Bewdley in Saturday's Worcestershire Premier League, which saw them relinquish second place.

Having won the toss, skipper Martyn Davies decided to bowl first, but Bewdley were quick out of the blocks – the experienced Simon Mauger being particularly aggressive.

Following his dismissal for a quickfire 40, Spa came back into the game, but none of the bowlers produced a really tight spell.

Opener Paul Beard scored a fine 96 and the hosts looked destined for a score of 300 before a lull in proceedings and some fine fielding kept the score down to 275-8 from 50 overs.

Martyn Davies was Droitwich's most successful bowler, his ten overs yielding 3-37.

In reply, the away team produced an excellent opening stand for the second successive week, with the Jake and Max Young brothers putting on 90 in 21 overs before the former was dismissed for a steady 24.

Max Young looked destined for a century but was deceived by spinner Jack Mills and bowled for 72.

With Connor Grant dismissed cheaply, Spa had again lost a cluster of wickets, leaving Paul Bryan and David Lane to re-build.

The two middle order batsmen began to build a partnership but following their dismissals for 27 and 33 respectively, Droitwich's run chase looked doomed.

A few lusty blows near the end took the Spa score up to 217-9, but bowling on the day was not good enough on a wicket which was not easy to bat on.

The seconds maintained their chase for promotion with a straightforward victory over neighbours Avoncroft.

On a testing wicket, opener Rhys John carried his bat for 96 not out in a total of 226-5.

Avoncroft never recovered from a poor start and were dismissed for 103.

Special mention must be made of the excellent slow bowling of Martin Woodhead & Craig Hunt who shared seven wickets, coupled with some quite beautiful glovework from veteran wicket keeper Scott Fenn.

Droitwich thirds' crunch match away at Coombs Wood ended in a disappointing defeat for the visitors.

Spa could only muster 14309 in 50 overs, Ash Walton being the mainstay of the batting with 70. Coombs Wood got home with overs to spare to leapfrog Spa to top the table.

In another game where the toss proved all important, the fourths suffered a five-wicket defeat to Bartestree and Lugwardine, having been bowled out for 106.