KIDDERMINSTER Victoria put a difficult few weeks behind them with a better display but they were still frustrated by dogged Wombourne as they were restricted to a draw on Saturday.

The Chester Road side bounced back from last week’s 222 run defeat to fellow title rivals Shrewsbury with a more encouraging performance.

But they had to settle for 16 points as Wombourne’s determined batting order dug in and avoided being dismissed.

The draw also saw KVCC replaced in second by Brockhampton and knocked down to third.

Wombourne had won the toss and decided to field and it brought early success when Craig Wood was bowled Dewi Jones for eight runs.

Kidderminster were finding runs difficult to score against some good bowling and by the time they had reached 69 were five wickets down.

Andy Kimberlin (11) was out lbw to Ed Denham and number three batsman Zac Turley looked to be getting into his stride when hitting six fours before being caught by Ben Robinson.

Neil Pinner (12) was out to a catch by Mark Fisher off the bowling of Michael Hill, Charlie Stainforth (0) dismised first ball by Michael Hill as KVCC slipped to 69-5 in 19 overs.

Connor Smith (20) struck four fours but was out to yet another catch, this time by Ben Hudson off the bowling of Ben Robinson.

Things began to turn in the home team’s favour when a good stand between skipper Jonathan Wright and Richard Kimberlin produced 87 runs in 18 overs.

Wright was bowled by Denham for a vital 53, hitting ten fours.

Mark Mansell (4) was caught by Mark Fisher off the bowling of Denham, and the same man accounted for Kimberlin with a catch by David Hemming.

Kimberlin scored 61 in a superb innings which included nine 4s.

His brother Tom gave Denham his sixth wicket when was out lbw for four runs as KVCC recovered to post a solid score of 216 all out in 52 overs.

Wombourne had bowled well and were hoping their batsmen might help them climb up from bottom spot in the league table, but only Mark Grant (60) and Henry Bartlett (40) managed good scores.

However, the rest put up some stubborn resistance which prevented Kidderminster bowling them out.

Gareth Williams took five wickets for 42 runs, while Pinner (2-28) and Smith (1-30) also made contributions but Wombourne batted the full 57 overs to reach 172-8.

KVCC go to Walsall on Saturday (noon start).

Worcestershire’s second team will be playing at Kidderminster against Durham over four days from Monday.

The first day will be a one day game (noon start), followed by a three-day match with a daily start time of 11am. Admission is free.