RICHARD Bradley says Stourbridge CC will take the positives from their losing draw against Aston Manor.

Stour’s home game with the Manor at the War Memorial was one of only two games in Birmingham League Division Three to survive last weekend’s awful weather.

But the third-placed hosts failed to make the most of an opportunity to close on the top two as the visitors had the better of things — only being denied victory by a late rain shower.

Bradley’s side collected six points — only one more than they would have accrued had the game been abandoned.

However, the skipper believes his side will have benefited from playing.

He said: “We will take a lot from the game.

“You could say it was a missed opportunity but Aston Manor are a very strong side and have ambitions of joining the promotion race themselves.

“But this Saturday when we go to Streetly we will have had the advantage of having played a game whereas they have been sat around for a couple of weeks.

“It’s wasn’t our most polished performance but there are positives we can take from it.”

Stourbridge lost what Bradley believes was a crucial toss and found themselves batting on a tricky wicket and they were soon in trouble.

Opener Steve Game was bowled without scoring, with Alex Bingham (10), Audy Alexander (11) and Josh Banks (2) also falling cheaply.

Skipper Bradley played a superb innings to get his side out of immediate trouble, hitting 57, with Matt Bradley’s 26 the next highest contribution as Stour posted 165-9 from 55 overs.

Aston Manor’s reply got off to a strong start as openers Darren Barker (41) and Clement Smith (29) gave their side a solid platform.

Aurrel Kirnon also hit 41 but just when the visitors seemed poised for victory, seven runs short of Stour’s total, the heavens opened to wash away their hopes.

Bradley added: “You could say we got a little bit lucky with the rain but we were unlucky to lose what was a very important toss bearing in mind the conditions, so it maybe evened itself out.

“I actually thought 165 was about a par score on that wicket, the difference was the used the new ball better in both innings.

“We probably needed to pick up a coupld of early wickets in their run chase but as soon as they laid the foundations it was always going to be tough.”