Wins for leaders Halesowen and Wolverhampton as Old Hill climb out mire - Birmingham League round-up

All-rounder Bragg, formerly of Worcestershire and Leicestershire, tore through Harborne's order with a haul of seven wickets to reduce the visitors to 130.

Bragg claimed 7-26 from 14.3 overs with assistance from Eddie Rhodes (2-35) and James Rudge (1-28).

Halesowen did not have it all their own way as Oliver Hannon-Dalby had the hosts 36-3 before Luke Tulacz dug in for an unbeaten 62 to guide his side to victory in the first round of red ball action in the sixth fixture of the league campaign.

Halesowen lead the way by four points from chief rivals Knowle & Dorridge.

Wolverhampton moved up to fourth courtesy of an entertaining 73-run win over Moseley at Danescourt.

A third victory of the season came largely thanks to South Africa Test batter Zubayr Hamza's 90 from 95 deliveries. Opener Tom Fell (63) got the hosts on their way but Hamza, batting at four, put on a fourth-wicket stand of 102 with skipper Joe Stanley (62) as Wolverhampton tallied 284-7 from their 55 overs.

Moseley's Jakob Bhula (52) and Mahsen Narvel (53) both made inroads for the visitors but Stanley (pictured) was the man for Wolverhampton as he claimed six wickets to ensure victory.

Sixth-placed Smethwick fell 36 runs short at Barnards Green. The hosts batted first with 239-9 mostly thanks to skipper Ryan Tongue's 126 from 156 across more than three hours. Smethwick's Deepak Khatri claimed 4-60 with two wickets apiece for Mohammed Shaikh and Gurbaj Singh.

Smethwick were 203 all out in response having looked well-placed at 83-3, but fell short despite Bilal Shafayat's unbeaten 63.

Himley claimed eight points via a losing home draw against Ombersley. The visitors registered 228 all out having been put in with Ben Robinson's haul of 6-52 and 3-48 for Ollie Walker.

Home skipper and opener Ollie Westbury's 55 in two hours, assisted by wicketkeeper Navindu Vithanage down the order, had Himley finish up 190-6. Ombersley's Nathan Bowley (3-14) impressed.

In Premier Division Two, Old Hill chalked up a huge seven-wicket away win at lowly rivals Handsworth to move out of the bottom two.

Old Hill's Ali Latif took four wickets for 29 runs as his side chased 196.

That was achieved with minimum fuss and a wonderful fourth-wicket stand of 173 via Pakistani pro Saad Naseem's ton (105*, including six sixes) and captain Bilal Hassan (74).

There was also away success for fourth-placed West Bromwich Dartmouth at Worfield as the visitors wrapped up the job in dramatic style.

Victory was complete with seven balls to spare as the visitors chased down Worfield's 240-6. Tim Maxfield (60) led the way with some more heavy scoring from Ismail Mohammed (46) and Ateeq Javid (58*) who hung around to secure the spoils in the nick of time.

Rock-bottom Kidderminster still await a first victory after a four-wicket home defeat to Coventry & North Warwickshire at Chester Road.

The hosts were all out for 233 after Daniel Lategan's 78, 59 for Nathan Jukes and 38 from keeper Ben Griffin. The visitors' Gursimrat Singh took 5-44.

C&NW had Akshaykumar Patel, at five, fire 93 not out to help them to victory, as well as Danyaal Malik's 57.

Mid-table Stourbridge were beaten convincingly at new leaders Dorridge.

Captain Joe Dodge and opener Jeremy Solozano fired 112 and 72 respectively with 4-67 from Stourbridge's Dan Wale.

Warwickshire seamer Chris Rushworth, in preparation for facing Worcestershire this week, took 6-27 in nine overs to extinguish Stourbridge hopes as the visitors fell a mighty 202 runs short.