White Coppice 1st XI made it four wins in five matches with a 65-run win over local rivals Hoghton.
Coppice went into the match without leading run scorer Ryan Adderley and handed a debut to Amaan Ughradar.
Opener Chris Maguire was dismissed early on to one that kept low before Bobby Wood (23) and Richard Bush took the score to 64 before the former holed out to mid-on.
This brought Ughradar to the crease and he dominated a stand of 64 with Bush, scoring 41 off 45 balls with 10 boundaries.
At the other end Bush continued his remarkable form by scoring his fourth 50 of the season, alongside his first career hundred.
Bush failed to register a 50 in 2023 and 2024 but this season he’s batted like a man possessed and has now scored 343 league runs for the 1st XI at an average of 57.
Coppice collapsed from 125-2 to 181 all out but for the second week running Matt Tinsley took two wickets in his first over to reduce the visitors to 0-2.
Irfan Talati was bowled first ball playing an ambitious shot while No 3 Sajid Mughal also perished for a duck when he failed to ground his bat over the line and was stumped.
Hougton recovered to 78-3 at the drinks break but the wheels came off their innings on the resumption with captain Jake Smalley burgling his third five-wicket haul of the season.
Greg Gorrell was well caught at midwicket by Chris Maguire to trigger a collapse that saw them lose 8-35.
Soyeb Patel rode his luck before being expertly caught on the boundary by Ughradar for a top score of 47 to reduce the visitors to 92-5.
Ibby Akram bowled magnificently to take 3-45 and could have a couple more on another day as Hoghton were dismissed for 116.
Smalley ended with 5-39 – and immediately added his name to the honours board in the home side’s changing room.
The skipper now has the best strike rate in the division – taking a wicket every 16 balls.
Special mention for wicketkeeper Ant Dark, whose four victims saw him rise to top spot in the fielding averages.
· White Coppice 2nds slipped to 13-8 vs Norcross 2nds before being bowled out for 33. Playing on an astro pitch, Coppice’s batters had no answer to the opening bowlers, who took five wickets apiece. Jeff Smith (11) was the only player to reach double figures. In reply, Adam Mannan took 3-11 but it was never going to be enough.