Burntwood St Matthews 1st XI continued their push for promotion from the Staffs Division 3A, with a narrow eight run victory away to promotion contenders, Coseley 2nd XI.

This result was made all the more remarkable for Burntwood as they achieved victory despite fielding just nine players for the entire match, in what was an already weakened team.

Burntwood were put into bat first by Coseley, in a game limited to 40 overs per side due to weather conditions. The visitors got off to a stuttering start, slumping to 64-5, despite the efforts of Steve Earp (35).

However, a 121 run partnership between middle order batsmen George Haywood (88) and 15 year old Ollie Stainton (38), helped Burntwood onto a more competitive total of 197 runs at the end of 40 overs.

The Coseley bowling was spearheaded by wicket-takers Chris Whitehouse and Daniel Turner, who finished with figures of 4-64 and 3-56 respectively.

The hosts then took the crease to bat, and started off well with opener Ian Rouse and S Costello both hitting 46 runs each.

However, other than Rouse and Costello’s inspiring totals, the Coseley batting took a disastrous turn for the worse.

The other nine batsmen could only make 50 runs between them, and this was not enough as they finished on 189 runs all out, falling eight runs short of Burntwood St Matthews’ total.

Despite only having nine players, the Burntwood field performed admirably, in particular Matt Hoccum and youngsters Liam Price and Ollie Stainton. These performances in the field were accompanied by an outstanding spell of bowling by Burntwood’s Luke Dovey (7-76).

This victory cements Burntwood’s position of third in the Staffs Division 3A, but leaves a top two finish looking unlikely for the Saints with just one game left to play of the league season.