A SUPERB team performance saw Dorridge trounce Sutton Coldfield by six wickets to win promotion back to the Birmingham Premier League as champions.
After the previous week’s washout, the sun returned and after losing the toss, the visitors elected to bat first.
Opener Lee Thomason was out early for just six runs and number three Jon Sargent scored just nine as accurate bowling by James Ayres and Dave Ball made the score 38 for 2.
Peter McKay soon followed and when Tom Wright was stumped by Dodd, Sutton were in trouble at 55 for 4.
James Hunt and Jack Twigger battled back by adding 78 runs before Ayres ended Hunt’s innings on 52 and the last five wickets folded for only 23 runs as Sutton were bowled out for 178 in the 50th over.
Ball and Iftikhar conceded only 32 runs off their 20 overs in taking a wicket each while Ayres took the bowling honours by conceding just 27 runs and collecting four wickets from his ten overs.
Dorridge’s reply got off to a dreadful start as Ali Ebad (3) and Ahmad Aqeel (0) fell in the first two overs but this was as good as it got for Sutton as James Hemstock and, in particular, Barrie Forrester-Smith took the game away from them.
They put on 109 with Hemstock in a supporting role as Barrie Forrester-Smith hammered the bowling to all parts.
When Hemstock was bowled by an excellent slow yorker for 21 at 133, Mark Swanick came in and helped to add 43 whilst scoring 6 off just the eight balls he faced.
Forrester-Smith ended with a quite superb 130 not out off only 93 balls and he hit 17 fours and 5 sixes.
So great was his dominance that Dorridge only needed 28.2 overs to confirm top spot in the league.
