OLD Hill will have to pull out all the stops this Saturday as they attempt to reclaim their Birmingham League status when they clash with Staffordshire champions Tamworth at Moseley's Streetsbrook Road ground.
A mixed return from their opening two play-off games against Whitchurch and Coventry have left the Haden Hill side needing a must win result against Tamworth to stand any chance of promotion.
Old Hill's opening encounter with Coventry and North Warwicks resulted with a 65 run reverse but they bounced back the following day to despatch Shropshire representatives Whitchurch by a 71 run margin.
Coventry had piled on the runs against Old Hill to reach an imposing 250 for seven, opening bat Will Iles laying the foundation with 83, before runs continued to flow through Matt Nobes 22, Vikram Sodhi 49, Manish Kamboj 34 and Marco Higgins 22 not out.
Sam Wright proved the most successful Old Hill bowler bagging figures of four for 62.
But the Hill fell well short in reply and were removed for 185 all out in the 44th over, Waqas Ahmed with 50 and Jahanzib Khan on 49 the only batsmen to make any impact.
Sunday's clash with Whitchurch was a different story with Old Hill soon in the driving seat.
Openers Omar Masood with 43 and Waqas Ahmed on 35 providing the platform for seasoned campaigner Ravi Nagra to score a run-a-ball 53.
Dylan Keeling then cracked an unbeaten 42 not out as the Hill posted 240 for nine.
Whitchurch made a determined start to their reply and with the threat of rain in the air were actually ahead on the DLS scoring rate after 20 overs.
The turning point came when Whitchurch had their Birmingham Phoenix batsman Evelyn Jones spectacularly caught by Balal Hassan when the score was at 95 for three.
It left Michael Robinson to fight a lone battle, just missing out on his century when removed for 98 with the score on 164 for seven.
Whitchurch succumbed shortly afterwards at 169 for nine, Sam Wright and Alex Elsworth snapping up a couple of wickets apiece.
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