Chris Russell and Brett D'Oliveira made sizeable contributions with the ball and bat respectively as Worcestershire Rapids defeated Worcestershire Royals in an internal T20 practice match at New Road today.
But the most heartening sight was to see Tom Fell back in a Worcestershire shirt for the first time since being diagnosed with cancer.
Fell, who underwent the second of three bouts of chemotherapy two weeks ago, played for the Rapids and batted at number five and scored five.
The two sides again consisted of a mixture of first team, second eleven and academy players as had been the case in yesterday's 50 over match at New Road.
Russell, the County's leading wicket-taker in the NatWest T20 Blast in 2014, returned 4-20 from his four overs after the Royals, skippered by Joe Leach, had elected to bat.
His victims included Royals opener Alexei Kervezee who top-scored with 61 off 50 balls with one six and seven fours.
Kervezee shared in a second wicket stand of 64 with Joe Clarke (26) with Tom Kohler-Cadmore (20) the other main contributor to 135-8 from 20 overs.
Matt Henry (1-23), D'Oliveira (1-23) and Moeen Ali (1-28) were the other wicket-takers.
The Rapids were in trouble at 44-4 after losing wickets to Jack Shantry (2-29), Joe Leach (1-27) and Charlie Morris (1-18).
But then D'Oliveira and academy opener Ollie Westbury joined forces and saw their side home with an unbroken stand of 92.
D'Oliveira finished unbeaten on 59 from 42 balls with two sixes and seven fours and Westbury 27 not out from 26 deliveries as the Rapids reached 136-4 in 16.5 overs.
