Monmouth Cricket Club's 1st XI's difficult season continued with a hard fought losing draw away at Bewdley in their Worcestershire County Cricket League Division 2 encounter.
After winning the toss, skipper Dan Head elected to field but an opening stand of 90 between Simon Mauger (62) and Paul Beard (50) put Monmouth on the back foot. It was left for Robbie Combes to smash an unbeaten 120 from just 80 balls as Bewdley posted an imposing 298 for 4. Aled Jones (1-47 from 12 overs) was the pick of the bowlers whilst there were also wickets for Jordan Charles, Tej Saran and Andy McGuire. The bowlers were backed up in the field by good catches from Head, Saran and Dan Risk.
With a big total to chase, Monmouth innings got off to a bad start with both openers failing, leaving the score 11-2. David Teague impressed again with a solid 63 whilst there were noticeable contributions from Josh Grey (37), Jonathan Roberts (32) and Risk (28) but in the end, the total proved to be too much as Monmouth finished on 212 for 9. The pick of Bewdley's bowlers were left arm spinner Jack Mills (4-61) and opener Michael Harris (3-31).
Monmouth are in a real relegation scrap and need to turn around their results to have any chance of staying up.