White Coppice 1st XI handed league leaders Leyland 4th XI their first defeat of the season with a 48-run win.
The 12-point haul took Jake Smalley’s side up to joint third in Division Five of the Palace Shield ahead of Saturday’s game against Whittle.
Richard Bush gave Coppice a flying start to their innings with 36 off just 22 balls.
He took a particular liking to John McKeever – pulling the second ball of the match for six – as the opening bowler finished with 0-28 from his two overs.
When Bush departed he’d scored 36 of the opening partnership of 39!
Janayed Ilyas made his debut and showed a good technique at number three before getting caught behind to leave the home side at 55-3.
However, Antony Dark’s response was to go on the attack on the date of his 6thwedding anniversary to hit 60 off 44 balls, including four sixes.
Two of his maximums cleared the cottages but he perished to the final ball before the drinks break.
Leyland’s young spinner William Turner bowled really well to take 5-27 off 10 overs, including the prolific Ryan Adderley for 29.
There was still time for Matt Tinsley to hit his first ever six when he deposited Turner over wide long-on – sparking noisy celebrations from his team-mates.
When Tinsley was caught behind soon afterwards he was the 10th catch of the innings.
In reply, Leyland’s opening batsman John Turner gave Richard Bush the bowler a taste of medicine by hitting a quickfire 62 off 69 balls.
However, he didn’t get much support from the other end and when he was caught behind off Uzzy Akram his team were 92-6.
Matt Tinsley took 3-39 and Akram 2-28, thanks in no small part to Ian Aldred, who snaffled four catches.
At one point it looked like all 20 wickets would go to catches but Adderley ended that sequence when he trapped Rob Bolton lbw on his way to 3-11.
Special mention must also go the fielding at square leg of Ilyas and the captaincy of Jake Smalley, who pretty much got every decision right.
· White Coppice 2nd XI slipped to a five-wicket defeat at Hesketh Bank 2nd XI on Saturday after being on the wrong end of two key moments.
The game saw a return of veteran Steve Atkinson from Highfield Cricket Club.
He top scored with an innings of 31 but Akshit Jagnani’s dismissal for 24 saw Coppice collapse from 81-2 to 114-9.
Anoop Appu’s unbeaten 18 helped Coppice reach 135.
In reply, the game was in the balance when Hesketh Bank slipped to 100-5 with Anis Haider taking 3-37 and Atkinson grabbing 1-29 off 10 overs.
However, a couple of expensive overs put pay to Coppice’s outside chances of a win as Hesketh wrapped up the win in 34 overs.
· On Sunday, White Coppice lost their Crabtree Cup game with Charnock St James by three wickets.
There were lots of positives to take from the game but ultimately Coppice were 30-40 runs light with the bat.
Batting first a run-a-ball 45 from Uzzy Akram took the score to 72-2 but his dismissal saw a flurry of wickets go down.
Anis Haider chipped in with 24 but four lbw decisions didn’t help – including in-form Ryan Adderley for just 4 – as the last four wickets went down for just six runs.
In reply, Charnock St James’ openers hit 61 for the first wickets but an outstanding fielding display saw the visitors collapse to 131-7. An unbeaten 44 by Waqas Jamos proved the difference.