KIDDERMINSTER captain Neil Pinner says his side must improve their batting as they go in search for their first win of the season.

KCC's poor start to the campaign continued with defeat against Shrewsbury at Chester Road last Saturday.

Again it was a lack of runs that will cause most concern following successive losses to open the new Birmingham and District Premier League season.

Against Shrewsbury, Kidderminster won the toss and chose to field. This brought quick results with two Shrewsbury wickets inside three overs. Will Parton (5) was caught by Mark Edwards bowled Connor Smith and county player Oliver Westbury (2) was bowled by his county colleague Pat Brown.

From being 8-2, Shrewsbury reached 76 before Ed Foster (27) was caught by keeper Tom Kimberlin from the bowling of Liam Weston. The score doubled to 150, but the keeper was in action again, stumping skipper Ben Stebbings (71) off the bowling of the KCC skipper Neil Pinner.

With the score on 192, Shrewsbury lost their fifth wicket. Tim Ward had reached 50, striking six fours, when he was caught by Pinner bowled Weston. Only two more wickets fell as the visitors reached 234 off the allotted 50 overs.

Dillon Pennington (17) was bowled by Pinner and Matt Swift (4) was bowled by Charlie Stainforth. The not out batsman was Rob Foster who had scored 35.

Kidderminster never got going and lost wickets at regular intervals with Mike Barnard in great form, finishing 5-24 from five overs.

Top scorers for KCC were Mark Edwards (21 not out), Pinner (19) and Charlie Stainforth (13).

Pinner said: "It was a good wicket but we bowled well in the middle overs and at the end of Shrewsbury's innings.

"They did bat well to keep wickets in hand nut I think we limited them to a par score.

"Again, similar to the week before, our batting was not good enough, especially at the top of the order.

"We played too many loose shots and lost our focus and application.

"If we can improve our batting then we'll start to win games because our bowling and fielding has been consistent.

"We lost the first six games last season before ending the season strongly, so if we can pick up a win soon we'll be ahead of where we were."

Opening bowler Pat Brown is unavailable for this Saturday's trip to Kenilworth Wardens (noon start) but Pinners says he will consider bringing a batsman and sharing the bowling duties out to cover.

Meanwhile, Kidderminster's Birmingham League second Xl were all out for 155 in the 43rd over against Coventry and North Warwickshire, with openers Sam Beadsworth and Gomez Vincent out for 24 and 22 respectively and Ryan Field top scoring on 32.

But it proved to be a bowler’s wicket, with the opposition all out for 117 in just 32 overs, Field taking six wickets, Andy Logan and Mike Kirby-Davies supporting with two a piece.

Kidderminster’s Worcs League 1st XI scored 225 for 5 to beat Stourport, who they bowled out for 224 with Harry Carter top scoring on 89 not out. Matt Roberts took all five of KCC’s wickets.

The club’s Worcs League 2nd Xl scored 178 for 8 and then bowled out Malvern for 66 in just 23 overs. Under 14 player Rhordi Morson was impressive, taking five wickets for 27 runs off 11 overs.

Kidderminster fielded a very young development side in the Sunday 2nd XI League, losing by 13 runs in a well-fought bid to beat OE’s 223 total, with captain Sam Beadsworth scoring an exemplary 121.