Nathan Shepard made New Longton 3rds pay for dropping him first ball by smashing a maiden hundred.
The youngster hit exactly 100 off 58 balls – including 76 in boundaries – to guide White Coppice 2nds to a 114-run win.
Coppice 2nd XI showed five changes from the previous week, with several of those players coming in going on to make significant contributions
Returning captain Martin Cuerden won the toss and decided to make first use of another excellent wicket prepared by groundman Phil Dewhurst.
He opened the batting with Rich Bush and shared a quickfire partnership of 61 in nine overs before departing for 18.
Bush, who hit five fours in the second over, scored 77 in 58 balls to register his first half century in three years.
Coppice were wobbling at 86-4 and it would have been worse if Shepard hadn’t been dropped first ball.
Shepard, who was returning home from university for his first competitive game of the season, was in imperious form and bore no resemblance to the 2024 player that had a top score of 8!!
He received staunch support from league debutant Anis Haider (39) as they shared 123 for the 7th wicket, the second highest 7th wicket partnership recorded for Coppice on PlayCricket.
Shepard seemingly found the boundary at will as he brought up his maiden hundred off just 56 balls, including six sixes.
Haider was unlucky to be run out but he played a huge part in helping his team to an imposing 284 all out.
In reply New Longton’s innings got off to slow but steady start thanks to another excellent partnership between Sheperd (0-9 off six overs) and Haider (0-26 off 10).
Bush completed a good day by breaking the opening partnership by bowling Andrew Bennett for 22 while his opening partner Michael Jones batted through for an undefeated 51.
Coppice used seven bowlers with Jeff Smith (2-22) and Anoop Appu (2-14 against his old side) being the main wicket-takers
It was a welcome victory for Coppice after two consecutive defeats.
* White Coppice 1st XI were crushed by 120 runs at Ingol and Freckleton in a game where pretty much everything went wrong after Jake Smalley won the toss.
With rain forecast, Smalley decided to bowl first but his bowlers struggled to cope with a strong crosswind and a short legside boundary.
Openers Sam Helm (58) and Tom Sandells (52) shared a 94-run partnership for the first wicket before Pradeep Bandarupalli hit an aggressive 83 of 53 balls to help his team to an impressive 268-5. Matt Tinsley took 3-58 off 15 overs.
By the time Ingol and Freckleton came to bowl the wind had died down but they made much better use of the conditions, evidenced by the fact that eight of the Coppice batsmen were clean bowled.
Only Robert Wood (39); Ryan Adderley (34 not out) and Ibrahim Akram (24) reached double figures as they were bowled out for 148.
The news got even worse for Coppice as it emerged Akram has fractured his elbow while batting after being hit by an errant throw.