Whitchurch's woes in the Birmingham and District Premier Cricket League Division Three continued when they suffered a heavy defeat on their long trip to Rugby on Saturday.

Daniel Bowen retained the captaincy despite Alex Huxley's return as Whitchurch were given the runaround after they were put into the field by their hosts in the hot weather.

Despite a good start, with both openers removed by Bowen to leave the hosts 40-2, the Rugby middle order destroyed the visiting bowling attack as firstly, Jeevan Barhey scored 59 from 105 balls, with nine fours, but was bowled by Salim Ahmed.

But the stand-out showing was from the home number five Matthew Ewer as he smashed an unbeaten 117 from just 69 balls with a devastating display of hitting.

He smashed 14 fours and six sixes as he took the visiting attack to pieces, and he was given more than able support from skipper Owen Edwards who fell just four runs short of a well-deserved ton when he was stumped off Ahmed's bowling by Kristen Ali.

After the big hitters were dismissed, the innings petered out as Rugby finished 349-6

Ahmed and Bowen were the pick of the bowling for Whitchurch, with the former grabbing 3-36 from from nine overs and the latter opening up with 3-89 from his 14 overs; both bowled two maidens.

Despite Whitchurch already under the cosh from scoreboard pressure, openers Ahmed and Nadeem Ahmad made apositive start for the Heath Road side but the first wicket fell at 39 and wickets continued to fall regularly from there.

The first sign of resistance came in the lower-middle order when William Doerr and Ed Watson-Jones put on 15 before Watson-Jones was out and then Doerr put on 24 with Dave Weaver.

However, Whitchurch were soon bowled out for 126 in the 33rd over, with skipper Bowen left stranded on 18 not out.

Neal McGrath was the stand-out bowler for the home side with figures of 4-34.

The second XI also lost on Saturday to make a it a weekend of misery for the Heath Road club, as they were well beaten by north Shropshire rivals Oswestry's 2 at home.

The Morda Road men won the toss and justified the decision by racking up 268-6 from their 50 overs.

Josh Darley, earmarked as a danger man for the visitors, fell five runs short of his half-century at the top of the innings with 45, including eight fours, but Whitchurch worked hard to restrict Oswestry's scoring in the top order.

But a late salvo from Iwan Roberts, whose four fours and four sixes took him towards a well-deserved 50 while Owen Aspinall finished 42 not and Chris Cathrall finished 38 not out.

Whitchurch's bowling remained tight as they only conceded 23 extras in their 50 overs while Iain Marsh was the pick of the home bowling with 3-55 as the fourth change bowler, with excellent support from Mike Ellis, who took 1-25. James Marvell took the other.

However, Whitchurch's reply started badly and only got worse from there when the highest score of the top seven batters was nine. To add insult to injury, the remaining batsmen failed to trouble the scorers as Whitchurch were left 53-9 with Tom Griffin unable to bat.

On Saturday, both sides entertain Old Hill in a double header.