BROMSGROVE skipper Mark Evenson believes his side have paid the price for a lack of consistency with the bat after Saturday’s 35-run defeat to Dorridge in the Birmingham and District League Division One.

The Boars were unable to chase down Dorridge’s score of 182 all out and were bowled out for 147.

At one stage, Bromsgrove were 40-6 and it took a fight back by the tail end to prevent a heavy defeat.

The St Godwalds based side have struggled for form in the second half of the season as their promotion challenge fizzled out. Only Ashley Newdick, who has amassed 996 runs in 20 matches and Jayden Levitt (611) have regularly got among the runs for the first team and Evenson wants more of his top order contribute.

Evenson said: “I wasn’t at the game on Saturday but I was being kept informed and we lost our top six batsmen for around 40 runs.

“At one stage we were 101-9 and the tail end guys managed to add runs, but when you’re relying on the lower order to get so many it’s always going to be difficult.

“We’ve got some good batsman but only Ash Newdick and Jayden Levitt have scored consistently throughout the season and if we are to improve next year we need more people scoring more runs.”

Tom Underhill was one of Bromsgrove’s star performers on the day, taking four wickets to restrict Dorridge.

The Boars are ninth in the table but are not in any danger of being relegated and Evenson is looking for a strong end to the campaign. They entertain Whitchurch on Saturday and end the season at Wombourne on Saturday, September 15 (both noon start).