White Coppice 1st XI went to the top of Division 5 with a second maximum 12-point haul while the 2nd XI were well beaten by a strong Croston team.
Ryan Adderley captained the 1st XI in Jake Smalley’s absence and promptly lost the toss against Standish 2nds, who opted to bat.
The stand-in skipper got Richard Bush to open the bowling down the hill and the left arm paceman took 2-21 off 10 fiery overs.
His delivery to bowl out opener Conor Goodier for 15 was sensational, pitching on middle and hitting off stump.
He was ably supported by Matt Tinsley, who took 2-20 off 12.5 overs.
However, the star of the show was Ibby Akram, who took 5-37 off 10 overs and now has 112 wickets for the club.
The other noticeable feature was the ground fielding, which was faultless.
Standish slipped to 44-5 but recovered to 120 all out thanks to an excellent innings of 49 by the visitors’ captain Rob Hart.
Special mention for wicketkeeper James Field, in his first match of the season, Joe Seager at square leg and a couple of excellent catches by Bush and Adderley.
In reply, White Coppice’s openers Robert Wood (53 not out) and Chris Maguire (56 not out) raced to their target of 121 in just 14 overs.
It was White Coppice’s first league century opening stand in 12 years since Tony Moore and Keiran Crompton put on 149 vs Great Eccleston in 2013.
Wood crashed 11 fours in his first half century since rejoining Coppice while Maguire hit nine fours and one six.
It was a clinical performance on another excellent track prepared by Phil Dewhurst.
White Coppice 2nd XI slipped to a 146-run defeat to league leader Croston, who have now won eight games on the spin.
Martin Cuerden’s team went into the match without last week’s centurion Dan Preston with debuts given to Tom Dulson, Jithin Joseph and Chris Walsh.
Croston won the toss and opted to take advantage of a firm deck with a quick outfield by batting first.
Cuerden (2-36), James Speakman (1-32) and Harry Astley (1-56) shared the wickets as Croston closed on 225-4.
Astley’s figures didn’t do him justice as he caused constant problems in his opening spell.
In reply, Coppice’s innings never got going, slipping to 28-5 as no batter reaching double figures.
It was a particularly expensive innings for opener Cuerden with his long patched up bat, now resembling Trigger’s new broom in Only Fools and Horses, finally giving way and cracking.
The lower order provided some resistance to make 79 all out and kept Croston out there for 30 overs, when a much earlier finish had seemed on the cards at one point
The champagne moment of a tough day was when James Speakman hit his first ever Coppice six in his 45thgame for the club, picking up a slower ball to dispatch it over the leg side boundary.