White Coppice 1st XI are the early leaders of Division Five of the Palace Shield after a brilliant five-wicket win against highly fancied Preston Strikers.
Preston Strikers ran away with Division Seven last season, winning 20 of their 22 matches and starting their 2026 campaign with a 10-wicket win against Chorley 3rd XI.
Jake Smalley made three changes to the starting line-up, with Anis Haider and Elliot France called up after their heroics last week, while there was a return to the top of the order for Bobby Wood.
In glorious weather, it was no surprise when Preston Strikers decided to bat first after winning the toss.
Haider and Matt Tinsley both bowled excellent opening spells but couldn’t dislodge the visitors’ opening pair of Nakulan Vm (31) and Berin Shaji (70), who shared a 1st wicket partnership of 96.
Shaji, who hit four hundreds in 2025, was particularly impressive and scored his runs off just 71 balls.
Smalley’s masterstroke was bowling Richard Bush down the hill in the hope his left arm action would offer a fresh test for the batsmen, and it proved a genius move.
Bush, who is valued at £8.9m in the fantasy league, was fired up after only being listed as a batter and earned the nickname ‘The Angry Architect’.
Bush made the breakthrough when, two balls after surviving a close run-out, Shaji was brilliantly caught at long-off by Ryan Adderley, his fifth catch of the season.
The dismissal triggered a remarkable collapse as Strikers lost 10 wickets for 45 runs.
Bush finished with 6-56, but the most economical bowling came from Ibby Akram, who took 2-21 off 12 overs bowling up the hill.
Ironically, his worst delivery, a full toss, was slapped by opener Nakulan Vm to a diving Elliot France at midwicket for his first victim.
White Coppice’s ground fielding was outstanding and made it difficult for Strikers to get the scoreboard moving.
Coppice’s reply got off to a bad start when Bobby Wood was bowled in the first over and Chris Maguire was dismissed for six to leave the score at 19-2.
Bush completed a memorable day with an unbeaten knock of 56 off 100 balls, sharing a third-wicket partnership of 82 with Adderley, who scored 32 off 64 balls.
There were a few nerves when Jordan Halliday and France were bowled in quick succession, but Ant Dark settled them with an unbeaten 31 off 19 balls, including three trademark sixes.
White Coppice 2nd XI don’t have a league game for two weeks, so it was a much-changed team that headed to Bolton-le-Sands CC for a friendly game on Saturday.
Coppice were captained by Joe Seager, who celebrated his 40th birthday earlier in the week.
Visakh PV gave Seagar a belated birthday present by taking a wicket in his first over, but that was as good as it got as four Bolton-le-Sands batsmen, James Bousfield, Tom Burke, Gareth Finney and Mahfuzur Rahman, all made 50 before retiring not out.
There was a moment of joy when Matty Bunting and Ted Bird were both bowled by Adam Mannan in successive balls, although he missed out on a hat trick as the home side finished on 253-4 off 40 overs.
Coppice’s batsmen had no answer to Douglas Bousfield, who took 4-5 as they slipped to 11-8 and were in danger of getting less than Coppice’s all-out total of 19 against Withnell Fold in 2017.
That fate was averted by Visakh, who hit an unbeaten 15 at No. 10 to guide his team to 35 all out.
Tom Dulson’s Sunday team made it two wins from two with an 86-run victory against Ben’s Brewery in a game of several personal bests.
Janayed Ilyas (32) and Syed Bukhari (42 off 35 balls) shared an opening partnership of 68 before middle-order fireworks from Jack Dalziel, whose innings of 36 smashed his previous best of 16.
Marcus Barretto, who has worked hard on his batting, scored 24, beating his previous highest of five as Coppice closed on 238-9.
Ben’s Brewery were all out for 152, with the wickets shared around. The standout performer was James Hurst, who took 4-5 and effected a run-out. He even crowded a 13-year-old in pursuit of his hat trick!
