The visitors won the toss and elected to bat first and they were soon on the back foot with the wicket taking Weththasinghe and ultra economical Sutcliffe restricting them to 15/4 (having been 15/0) inside 10 overs. Weththasinghe was the main aggressor picking up three wickets in five balls as he caught and bowled McCheyne (11), before bowling Ridehaugh second ball and Collins second ball both without scoring. Foy (23) and Loster (27) staged a recovery and moved the score along to 83/5, before Weththasinghe found his second wind to claim a further four victims (to finish with 7/51), bowling Woodbank out for 108. Sutcliffe returned exceptional figures of 2/18 from 17 overs and Matt Curphey also helped himself to a wicket.
 
In reply Dave Taylor and Chris Holt made a patient start as Collins kept things tight early on. But once the pair had got their eye in, the run rate began to climb bringing up the half century partnership in the fourteenth over. The score moved along to 60 before Taylor fell to Ahmed for 37 – a knock which included three 6’s and three 4’s. Holt fell almost immediately after, again to Ahmed for 23, but at 61/2, the damage had been done. Weththasinghe blasted a quickfire unbeaten 33 from 23 balls and Matt Holt added an unbeaten 12 to take us over the line and top of the table for the first time since our return to the Lancs County League.

Our second team also picked up maximum points with a 60 run win at Woodbank. After posting 240 thanks to a half century from Paul Duerden and other sizeable top order contributions, we restricted the home side to 100/6 and then went through the motions as the final few wickets proved hard to take, before eventually bowling the hosts out for 180.

Next weekend we face a sterner test as we travel to Glossop on Saturday before taking on Thornham in the Walkden Cup on Sunday at the SCG.