A HIT-AND-MISS weekend for Ludlow saw them defeat Bomere Heath in the Shropshire County League Premier Division on Saturday - only to lose out to the same opponents on the same ground in Sunday’s Senior Slam semi-final.

Saturday’s victory was a personal success for Will Sparrow, whose bounce and loop on a crumbly wicket gave him remarkable figures of 6-5 off his first five overs.

He had Bomere in real strife at 60-8, with Jamie Smith taking three of his four catches off the spinner, two at short leg, and it needed a defiant 45 from No.9 batsman Matt Jones to lift Bomere to 129 all out. Sparrow finally finished with 7-41 off 15 overs.

Smith was an early casualty in Ludlow’s reply, dismissed for just one, but Sam Alford (ten fours in his 51) and Keanu Cooper (53) then broke the back of their chase to speed the visitors home on 130-3 in the 23rd over.

The following day Ludlow were back at Bomere Heath to face the host club in the semi-finals of the Shropshire Senior Slam, a Twenty20 tournament. And this time Bomere turned the tables on Sam Edwards’ young side.

Bomere totalled 135-8 off 20 overs, a far from daunting challenge for Ludlow, but they went for their shots, rather recklessly at times with a big boundary, and Alford (9), Smith (5), Cooper (5) and Harry Martin (7) all perished quickly as they were reduced to the ruins of 44-5.

Sparrow hit 19 and Edward Riley 13 not out but they were token runs as Ludlow were kept down to a disappointing 90-9 off their 20 overs. Bomere Heath then went on to beat Wem by six wickets in the final.

There were Saturday wins for both Ludlow 2nd and 3rd, with the 2nd beating Bomere Heath 2nd by three wickets and the 3rd overcoming Church Aston, Kev Boulton leading the way with 70 and Will Gough 54.

But Ludlow 4th failed to make it a clean sweep in only managing to score 106-9 in reply to Allscott 3rd’s 132-6 in Division Five.