RUGBY CC delivered their worst performance of the season after they suffered a disappointing nine-wicket defeat at the hands of Walmley in the Warwickshire Premier Division.
Wes Landsdale won the toss and elected to bat first only for Rugby’s top order to collapse against some new ball bowling.
Jamie Hall (3-15) and Kiefer Woods (3-24) both bowled their 10-over spells straight through and reduced Rugby to 37-6.
Owen Edwards (45) was the only top order batsman in good touch and finally found some support from Kasir Shah (14) with the pair the only Rugby batters to reach double figures.
They added 57 for the seventh wicket, the only meaningful partnership of the innings, before Edwards was caught trying to increase the tempo.
And Shah followed in the same over, as Reiss Chagar (4-30) polished off the tail with Rugby all out for a measly 112 in the 33rd over.
Walmley’s response never looked in doubt, as pinch-hitter Sachin Dubb (76) found the boundary with regularity before he fell to Shah (1-15) who took the only wicket of the innings.
And Walmley cantered to victory in the 21st over as James Bristow (29 not out) and Callum Herron (4 not out) steered the home side over the line.
Rugby host Stratford in their final match of the season and will be keen to finish the campaign on a high, after a poor run of results has left them down in ninth place in the league table.
In Division Five, Charlie Robards’s fifth century of the summer set up a 154-run win for Rugby’s 2nd XI to keep their promotion bid on track with one game left to play.
Robards (101) and fellow opener Lee James (49) put on 114 runs for the first wicket before Bhavik Rathod (20) and James Nuttall (35) then shared 48 and 64-run partnerships with Robards respectively.
And Robards passed 1,000 runs for the season when he was eventually dismissed as Michael Hughes (47 not out) and Keval Rathod (23 not out) helped Rugby close on 325-6 after adding 73 runs in the final eight overs.
Knowle and Dorridge 3rds knew the required total was out of their reach and were content to bat out their overs.
However, Rugby’s new ball attack of Nuttall (2-19) and Aravind Katragadda (3-13) reduced the visitors to 21-3.
Tom Riley (41) and Ruthvik Morajkar (52) fought back with an 88-run partnership for the fourth wicket, which was finally ended by Alex Watson (1-22) whilst Murali Natarajan (1-29) also claimed a wicket.
And B Rathod (1-16) claimed the eighth wicket in the penultimate over, before K and D closed their innings on 171-8.
Rugby are now nine points clear of third-placed Coventry WIW with one match left to play with a match against relegation threatened Sreetly awaiting them on the final day.
