BARNT Green’s title push in the Birmingham and District League Premier suffered a setback after slipping to a four-wicket defeat at home to Kidderminster Victoria.

With leaders West Bromwich Dartmouth seeing their game against Dorridge abandoned and Berkswell losing against Shrewsbury, Green had a chance to put some pressure on the sides sitting directly above them.

However, in a game affected by rain they were surprised by a resurgent KVCC side.

The visitors won the toss and Green were put into bat first and made a strong start.

Opening batsman William Baker (53) propelled Green 96-3 before he was dismissed by Matthew Pardoe, despite the loss of Nathan Newport (13) and Tom Burton (20).

But apart from 16 runs for Sam Cheshire, the rest of Green’s order failed to make an impact as they were kept to 138-9 in 26 overs.

Worcestershire batsman Pardoe also took four wickets, while Neil Pinner also made an impact with the ball taking three wickets for 27.

Green’s bowlers made immediate inroads against Kidderminster’s top-order batsmen.

The visitors lost Pardoe (9), Richard Kimberlin (6) and Michael Hill (0).

But Neil Pinner (64) turned the game on its head as Green’s rivals rallied from 18-3 to 92-4.

Craig Wood (27) and Zac Turley (13) added more runs as Kidderminster reached 140-6 in 25 overs.

Simon Jackson was the host’s most effective bowler with figures of 3-32.

Green skipper Andy Sutton said: “Winning the toss made the difference because there had been some rain and the game was reduced to 26 overs for each side.

“What was frustrating is this was a missed opportunity to put some pressure on the teams above as they had dropped points.

“But Neil Pinner is a classy player for Kidderminster and he made a huge difference.”

Green welcome back Luke Radford and Sam Hain for Saturday’s home clash with Dorridge (noon start).

Green are hosting the West Midlands area finals of the ECB National T20 Cup on Sunday.

l In Division One, Bromsgrove’s clash against Wolverhampton was rained off. They entertain Barnards Green on Saturday (noon start).

Meanwhile, the Boars defeated Droitwich by 60 runs in the Worcestershire Sunday League.

Lewis Cordes (127) and Tom Green (97) piled up the runs as the firsts scored 282-4 from 40 overs, before Spa were kept to 222-9.