Old Hill are facing a potentially pivotal Bank Holiday weekend in their Birmingham League Division One promotion push.
Nathan Round’s fourth placed side head to third placed Brockhampton on Saturday before hosting relegation threatened Evesham at Haden Hill on Monday.
With top two Berkswell and Kenilworth also set to square off, a pair of positive results would put them in an excellent position ahead of the final run-in.
But they will head into Saturday’s clash without their skipper or batsman Dan Wood, who will both complete a two game suspension following the club’s elimination from the National T20 last week.
They were absent as Old Hill’s recent patchy but hit an upward curve on Saturday with a three wicket win over Shifnal.
In cool overcast conditions, stand-in skipper Mark Fisher won the toss chose to field. Ashfak Hussain took 4-53 as Shifnal struggled to 168-7 before recovering to post 221-8 off their 55 overs.
Mike Hingley (71) and Nitesh Patel (53) set Old Hill on course but just when it looked they might lose their way, in came Nigel Davenport to steady the ship and guide them to victory with a brilliant undefeated innings of 47.
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