The former Warwickshire and England all-rounder, now captain of Barnt Green, clean bowled Jack Hawkes with a superb yorker off the last ball of the game to give his side victory, maximum points and pole position in the Birmingham Premier Division.

It was another crushing blow for the young Leamington side who are in desparate need of a win if they are to raise hopes of preserving their cherished status in the top flight.

To rub salt into the wounds, Brown's clinching strike came at the end of the 56th over - Barnt Green having declared their innings closed at 261-5 after 54 overs to give themselves another six deliveries to dismiss their visitors.

Master tactician Brown got it exactly right.

Leamington won the toss and started well enough as Luke Radford and Faisal Irfan bowled a neat line and length to keep a cap on the scoring rate. When Radford claimed the first wicket, Barnt Green had been restricted to 36 runs off 13 overs.

They did not reach three figures until the 29th over and there looked to be every chance that Leamington would have a target to attack. It did not happen.

Picking up the tempo in sizzling fashion, the home side suddenly found runs easy to come by with the closing 25 overs bringing them 157 runs.

Amazingly, 49 of those came from the last 18 deliveries shared by Radford and Jack Hawkes, Radford's final over seeing the unfortunate youngster carted for 30.

Set such a mountain to climb and again denied the services of Warwickshire's Luke Parker, Leamington dug deep. Tom Lewis and Michael Balac put on 57 for the first wicket before a middle order collapse, a disappointing trait this summer, saw Barnt Green sniffing victory.

Chris Cheslin, a late replacement for Parker, proved far from lightweight with a fine 37 and Neil Smith, for many years an Edgbaston colleague of Brown, included two sixes in a quickfire 34.

Hawkes also showed some steel at the death, only to fall to that stunning Brown delivery as Spa were on the point of escaping with a draw.

It meant just five points against a possible seven and with Moseley securing a surprise win against Wolverhampton, Spa were back in the bottom two.

Former Leamington junior Jamie Collins returned to Arlington Avenue in style on Saturday, the Stratford all-rounder cracking a powerful 70 to steer his side to a tense Premier 2nd XI win.

Spa recovered well after the early loss of their opening pair and only poor batting prevented them from putting up a stack of runs.

As it was they finally reached 193-8 after seven batsmen had departed to ill-directed strokes that resulted in catches.

Veteran Paton deserves credit for his lengthy 19-2-58-2 return while young spinner West has every right to be happy with his five-wicket haul, even though his charitable opponents made it happen!

Stratford were all at sea at 32-4 and even at 91-5 they looked in deep trouble. But Collins strode to the wicket with some purpose, rode his luck, hit out lustily and turned the game on its head.

He finally went for 70 (9x4), but left match star West (30), Perkins (25no) and Joseph (11) to see their team home by three wickets with 13 balls remaining. Matt Van Poppell's restricting spin brought him a deserved 23.5-7-81-4 return.

Barnt Green: G Shephard lbw Radford 26, N Newport lbw Smith 48, R Hall c T Lewis b Smith 54, S Shaphard st Balac b Hawkes 46, D Williams not out 33, P Coverdale c R Williams b Radford 0, P Bedford not out 43. Extras 11. Total (5 wkts, 54 overs) 261. Bowling: L Radford 12-1-81-2; F Irfan 9-1-35-0; T Westwood 7-1-27-0; N Smith 14-2-47-2; J Hawkes 12-0-61-1.

Leamington: T Lewis c A Smith b Brown 24, M Balac c Hall b Mann 27, M Lewis c A Smith b Mann 10, R Williams b Mann 21, L Hopkins c Ahmed b Hall 12, L Radford lbw Brown 1, C Cheslin c Coverdale b Hall 37, F Irfan c D Wiliams b Hall 12, N Smith b Mann 34, J Hawkes b Brown 13, T Westwood not out 2. Extras 8. Total (56 overs) 201.