Jack Holloway’s aggressive 64 carried Harborne to the impressive five-wicket win at Knowle & Dorridge that clinched his club’s fourth consecutive Birmingham & District Premier Cricket League T20 Challenge Cup finals day appearance. 

The T20 specialist hit nine fours and two sixes in a superb 36-ball knock which set the stage for Harborne to ease past their 162-run target with seven balls remaining. 

Top-order colleagues Swapnil Gugale (23) and Ben Shepperson (34) chipped in useful runs before skipper Tom Arnold joined Jimmy Clifford to finish the job off.

Umar Shaikh took 2-22 for K&D whose earlier batting effort was built around skipper James Middleton who found the boundary ten times and cleared it once while making a 37-ball 59.

Wicket-keeper George Baines added 34 for the hosts against a Harborne attack in which left-arm spinner Oliver Davidson (3-32) stood out.

Harborne face Barnt Green in finals’ day’s first semi-final after a fine spell from Lloyd Pope destroyed Halesowen’s qualification hopes.

Pope claimed 4-8 including three key top-order wickets to leave Barnt Green chasing just 81.

Ed Bragg top-scored for the hosts with 34 but along with the remainder of the Halesowen attack he was then unable to prevent the visitors cruising to victory in the ninth over with Henry Cullen 32 not out.

As last season’s ECB T20 plate winners, Wellington are already guaranteed entry to this year’s top tier Vitality ECB Club T20 and they now seek to take that place as BDPCL Challenge Cup holders.

After previously seeing off Worfield and Shrewsbury (in a bowl-out) Dan Vaughan’s team completed a Shropshire hat-trick with their 36-run home win over Shifnal.

The visitors were on top early on through new-ball pair Shaun Lorimer and Ben Roberts but from a distinctly unpromising 37 for four Wellington’s Indian pro Dhruv Parashar dominated the remainder of the innings.

The 20-year-old hit seven fours and four sixes in a superb unbeaten 50-ball 77 which – despite none of his teammates making it to double figures – enabled the hosts to post 157 for eight.

Shifnal’s response followed a similar pattern to the first innings with the top four being back in the hutch with just 21 on the board.

Skipper Chris Murrall (24) then joined Anthony Parker and the pair rebuilt to good effect in a 67-run fifth-wicket alliance.

Parker went on to make 63 from 41 balls including three sixes before falling to Parashar (2-24) and with Matt Simmonds claiming 3-26 the visitors closed on 121 for seven.

The tie of the round took place at Sandwell Park where West Bromwich Dartmouth edged past local rivals Himley by losing fewer wickets in a game in which both sides scored 176.

With 18 needed from Billy Cox’s final over, despite having four wickets in hand the visitors were long-odds to claim the spoils.

But sixes from the second and fourth balls swung the contest in Himley’s favour before, with two required, a leg bye from the final delivery left Dartmouth victorious by – in Ian Smith’s words – the barest of margins.

Rawlston Tappin earlier batted through the home innings for an excellent unbeaten 78. He added 127 with second-wicket partner Akeem Jordan whose 42-ball 69 contained four sixes as Dartmouth closed on 176 for four.

Navindu Vithanage and Bilal Hussain both then made quickfire 30s for Himley before Cox kept his head in the most dramatic of finales.

Finals day - Sunday July 21^st venue tbc

10.30am Harborne v Barnt Green

1.30pm WB Dartmouth v Wellington

4.30pm Final