SOLIHULL Blossomfield came out on top in their local derby with Olton & West Warwicks in Warwickshire County League Division 1, winning by 79 runs.
Alec Baker hit 68, which included a partnership of 52 with Sheraz Khan (37), as Blossomfield posted 137-7 in the reduced overs match.
Efficient fielding in the second innings from Naveed Bashir (3-12), and Jack Felton (2-12) helped keep Olton & West Warwicks total down to 58-7 from their 24 overs faced.
After the visitors Olton won the toss and elected to field first, Blossomfield lost an early wicket, when Jake Sammons (1) was dismissed by Zane Richter at 5-1.
But the combination of Baker and Khan helped lay an important foundation for the rest of the host’s innings, before Khan was caught by Joel Rigoni from Kevin Crotty’s delivery.
Chris Kenny (8) was next to go, before Baker and Iain Morgan (14) laid on a fourth-wicket partnership of 35, with the former being dismissed at 114-4.
Richard Weaver (4) was stumped by Chris Hughes, before Baker suffered the same fate in quick succession to finally end his stint at the bat.
Jack Felton followed them into the pavilion a couple of balls later after being bowled by Sunil Vyakaranam, with what proved to be the second-from-last ball of the innings.
Blossomfield got off to the perfect start to the second innings by taking three quickfire wickets, dismissing Marc Webb (1), Arwand Barnard (2) and Mohammed Hussama Khan (3), with Olton standing in a perilous position at 9-3.
Satveer Kang (5), Zane Richter (0) and Philip Trilloe (2) were also gone soon after, when Sammons took a couple of catches, with Olton already nearing the brink at 23-6.
Olton skipper James Neale (20) endeavoured to make the scoreline slightly more respectable for his side, and hit 31 with Hughes (13) to take the visitors to 54-7, before Neale was the seventh and final Olton batsman to be dismissed – when caught by wicket keeper Weaver.
The result leapfrogged Blossomfield above Olton into third, where they sit level on points with second-placed Moseley Ashfield, and four points off leaders Bablake Old Boys.
Solihull Blossomfield next visit Fillongley on Saturday (12.30pm), whilst Olton & West Warwicks get set for Friday’s visit to Rugby (6pm) in a T20 match, before hosting leaders Moseley Ashfield on Saturday (12.30pm).
