BROMSGROVE suffered their fourth defeat of the season at the hands of Barnards Green.

The hosts were bowled out for 158 at St Godwald's Park after their top order was removed cheaply.

Openers Alistair Hickman (7) and Alistair Hickman (16) Fell to Ryan Tongue (2-21) and Jonathan Dovey (3-41) respectively.

When Dovey removed Ashley Newfield, Alex Milton was run out by Mahaaz Ahmed and Tongue trapped Deon Patel lbw, the home side were reeling on 50-5.

Tom Hill (42) and skipper Mark Evenson (49) offered some resistance to boost the total but the Boars were eventually bowled out in the 51st over.

Green captain Tongue then starred with the bat with an unbeaten 85.

The visitors did lose Josh Blunt (2), Ahmed (1), Joe Crichard (6) and Rehaan Edavalath (10) before Andy Ford (53) partnered his skipper over the line.

Evenson said: "They had no hesitation in putting us in and the rain we had in the week really made things difficult. The pitch was a bit green but we just didn't have the greatest day at the office.

"We did well to get the score we did after a bit of a recovery but it still wasn't enough.

"We then had a quite a few big decisions go against us. There was a few dodgy lbw calls and then we had Ryan Tongue caught behind and that wasn't given.

"All we can do is react in the right way. We did that after our last defeat and we need to do that again."

Bromsgrove will look to get back to winning ways when they go to bottom-placed Brockhampton this Saturday.

"They are a team that will be looking for a bit of confidence, as we are after a defeat.

"They may have Darryl Mitchell available as well so that'll be a key wicket for us.

"There is still a lot of cricket to come and a long way to go yet."