White Coppice 1st and 2nd teams both secured four-wicket wins against Gregson Lane on Saturday.

White Coppice 1st XI remain top of Division Five after winning a low-scoring game against Gregson Lane 1st XI.

Matt Tinsley was the hero with joint career-best figures of 6-18, with good support from Tom Sandells (3-8).

After conceding 17 runs before taking his first wicket, Tinsley finished with the remarkable figures of 6-1, including eight successive maidens.

His first wicket was prolific opener Phil Woods, who has scored more than 400 runs this season at an average of 80.

Woods top-scored with 19 off 17 balls before hitting one to Jake Smalley in the covers after an opening partnership of 28.

Gregson Lane lost six wickets for just eight runs as Tinsley ripped through the top order.

The catch of the day went to Bobby Wood, who pouched a stunning one-handed slip catch to dismiss Carl Glover for a duck.

Sandells got rid of the tail with three victims and now has 19 wickets for the season.

White Coppice’s reply got off to a disastrous start, with the top three batsmen – Sandells, Chris Maguire and Richard Bush – all dismissed without troubling the scorers.

Captain Smalley promoted himself to No 4 and hit a quickfire 14 before nicking a good one behind.

At 25-5, the game was in the balance, but Wood (12) and Ant Dark (25 not out) shared a decisive partnership of 26 to double the score.

Dark finished with a couple of trademark sixes and now has 13 maximums for the season.

Rob Woods (3-16) and Zack Smith (3-28) bowled well for the visitors.

On the eighth time of asking, and on his birthday, Coppice 2nd XI captain Martin Cuerden finally won a toss – much to the delight of his team-mates, who captured the moment on film for posterity.

Bowling first, Coppice struggled to extract much life from the pitch, with Gregson Lane 2nd XI openers Peter Woodman and Micheel Rimmer putting on 33 for the first wicket.

The move to take pace off the ball worked instantly, with Adam Mannan striking first ball to bowl Rimmer for 12 and then Mike Houghton getting No 3 Adam Delaney LBW in his first over to reduce Gregson Lane to 36-2.

Mannan and Houghton bowled tightly to restrict scoring, with wickets falling regularly at the other end.

For the second season in a row, though, Coppice were held up by Woodman, who carried his bat last year. After the openers, nobody else reached double figures.

The home team slipped to 85-7, including an unusual run-out where Tom Bramhall, for reasons unknown to everyone except himself, threw the ball to point rather than the wicketkeeper for a straightforward run-out. Thankfully, there was still time to run out the unfortunate Ian Jones without him facing a ball.

Woodman then looked to accelerate before the close and brought up a hard-fought half-century before Cuerden bowled him for 51 off 131 balls, including six fours.

Mannan finished with 3-26, Cuerden took 2-13 and Houghton 2-8 from seven overs. Veteran Jeff Smith also took his 100th wicket for Coppice.

This set Coppice a target of 108, and it got off to the worst possible start when Smith couldn’t follow up on his heroics of last week, smashing a full toss straight to square leg, who took a smart low catch.

From there, Coppice put together three steady partnerships, with Elliot France the common denominator throughout.

Given a life early on, France battled hard to play the anchor role, scoring 27 from 69 balls.

No 4 James Hurst found scoring much easier to come by, peppering the leg-side boundary for 23 off 17 balls, including five fours.

At 78-3, with France and Houghton looking well set, things were looking comfortable for White Coppice. However, young Joe Mills dismissed both in the same over to put the cat among the pigeons.

Anoop Appu’s brief appearance at No 7 proved eventful for the wrong reasons. After being called through for a quick single, something went in his leg, leaving Appu hobbling and restricting his movement before he was dismissed for 2.

However, Ian Aldred came to the crease and combined with Tom Bramhall (22 not out) to knock off the final 23 runs in quick time and secure a four-wicket victory.

Bramhall also brought up his 1,000th run for the club, and fifth-placed Coppice are now just two points behind second-placed Vernon Carus 4th XI.