A mixture of Duckworth-Lewis, a resolute performance by visitors New Longton 2nd and some loose batting, saw White Coppice 1st XI lose by 43 runs on Saturday.
With rain forecast, stand-in captain Ryan Adderley decided to bowl first and he was rewarded with an excellent bowling and fielding performance.
Richard Bush bowled with real fire to take 2-16 off nine overs in an innings that was interrupted three times by rain and later reduced to 32 overs-a-side.
Chris Ward (35 not out) and Sam Rostron (29) shared a partnership of 49 with Adderley taking three quick wickets at the end to finish with 3-16, as New Longton closed on a competitive 135-7.
However, because of the constant weather interruptions, Duckworth-Lewis revised the Coppice target to a much tougher 169 off the same number of overs as New Longton.
Coppice slipped to 24-3 in reply before Bobby Wood (33) and Ant Dark (38) shared a partnership of 61 for the fourth wicket to give them a chance.
However, their dismissals were the signal for a flurry of wickets as Coppice were bowled out for 125.
White Coppice 2nd XI slipped to a four-wicket defeat against Penwortham 5th. After losing both openers Amaan Ughradar (26) and Syed Bukhari (24) started the rescue act but things looked gloomy at 62-5. However, Anis Haider hit 55 off 68 balls, combining with Adam Mannan, who hit a patient 11 as the visitors closed on 158. In reply Haider completed a good game with 3-9 off 10 overs but Coppice paid the price for bowling 25 wides. Stand-in captain Jeff Smith said: “Adam, Anis and Anoop’s batting took us from 62-5 to 158-9. Special mention to Amaan with bat and ball on his league debut.”
Ibby Akram was the star of Friday night’s CoppiceFest win against Hesketh Bank, who stepped in at the 11th hour after the previous opponents dropped out. Akram, who played in all four festival matches, arrived 40 minutes late but made up for lost time with 7-14 off four overs. Earlier Syed Bukhari hit 55 off 21 balls with seven sixes while Anis Haider smashed a quickfire 36. On Thursday, Coppice were punished for a number of dropped catches as they were beaten by six wickets by Adlington.