Tom Marsland’s 1st XI came away from the long trip to Marple with just seven points having posted a reasonable total of 196 which the home side picked off with ten balls to spare. After a couple of early wickets, the ship was steadied as Chris McArthur and Dan Owen put on 61 for the third wicket and with McArthur (33) departed, Neil Cross joined Owen to put on 74 for the fourth wicket. Both batsmen reached their half centuries ahead of the innings closing on 196 for 5. After tea is was the returning Matt Ingram who was first to strike, and with Maguire and Williams striking in quick succession to leave the scoreboard showing 45 fore 3 there was a hint of victory. Unfortunately that wasn’t to be as Wood and Morgan saw the hosts home by seven wickets. Onto next week and the short trip to Oxton who suffered an uncharacteristic defeat at Urmston and drop down to fourth place in the table.

At Old Greasby Road, Tom Woods’ 2nd XI looked in disarray at 17 for 4 until pocket powerhouse Dan Newhouse (34) came to the crease and the runs began to flow. With Newhouse departed, the partnership of George Williams (39) and Alex Livingstone turned what could have been a horror score into a respectable 171 for 9 from 50 overs, with the latter swinging his bat well for a superb 51. After tea, the bowlers did the best to push hard for victory , but with seven wickets down they struggled to claim the last three wickets as the visitors shut up shop. Both Livingstone (3 for 48) and Newhouse (2 for 13) capped fine all round performances as the hosts claimed 12 points from the match.

Facing Stretton on a difficult wicket at Frodsham, Ian Sharrock’s 3rd XI rattled up 175 for 5 in their 45 overs with opener Dave Charles the pick of the batsmen with 70. After tea, they found themseleves in a game as Stretton chased down the runs, but in the skipper there is a bowler who can turn a game, and he did just that returning a tidy 6 for 12 from his 13.5 overs to win the game for the visitors. With Port Sunlight winning also, the gap at the top remains 24 points.

On the back pitch, Simon Simcox’s 4th XI stared down the barrel of a whopping 216 for 3 set by Chester County Officers and ended the game on 136 for 7 with Akhtar Ali (48), Simon Simcox (29) and Rob Chapman (29) fairing well with the bat.