REDDITCH ended any fears of relegation in Worcestershire Division One with a 24-run win over fellow strugglers Droitwich on Saturday.

The 24 points ensured eighth place for the Kingfishers, while, defeats for Bromyard and Evesham confirmed Redditch were safe for another year.

Put into bat by Droitwich, Gregg Chinn (84) top scored as Redditch posted 255-9.

Geoff Eley (3-23), Perry Derrick (2-51), Waqas Ali (2-32) and Chinn (2-38) then took the wickets as Spa were dismissed for 231, despite Kris Corbett’s 101.

In Division Two, third-from-bottom Feckenham hammered Malvern by 208 runs, while Alvechurch and Hopwood came seventh after defeat to Old Vigornians.

l Steve Adshead believes Astwood Bank need to find more runs to build on their first season in the Birmingham and District League Division Three.

The Sambourne Lane side secured their league status two weeks ago and a thumping 202-run over Streetly sealed seventh-place.

Bank’s bowling attack of Dan Thomas, Thomas Harris, Dan Taylor and Jonathan Summers acclimatised well after they had won promotion from the Worcestershire League last summer.

Batting-wise Astwood have struggled to score runs, with Adshead the only batsman to score centuries. But Sam Thomas and Brandon Miller made useful contributions at different times.

The captain said: “The bowlers have done very well and they have made a huge difference this season.

“We’ve got to try and score more runs, this season we often would find ourselves three wickets down in the first ten overs and it was often how we reacted that dictated if we won or not.

“We’ve got some good players who have scored runs for us in the past and they will do it again.”

Astwood certainly ended the season in style as they denied Streetly the second promotion spot on Saturday.

Victory would have secured a place in Division Two but were stopped in their tracks by an experimental Astwood.

Put into bat, the villagers tried Tom Pedley and Michael Desmond at the opening partnership but it was Adshead, playing in the middle order, scored 113 as Astwood made 271 all out.

Summers (4-24), Dan Taylor (3-11) were in fine form as Streetly were dismissed for 69.

“I think Streetly felt they need to bowl us out and chase us down to win the game but we would have batted first if we’d have won the toss,” added the skipper.