BIRKENHEAD elected to bat against Rainhill and punished the bad ball.

Kinsley (52), Davies (48) and Huffton (26) enjoyed the excellent wicket and pushed the score to 205 for 9 in 55 overs.

Bullocks left arm spin 5 for 45 being the pick of the home bowling. After a steady response, Rainhill lost four wickets for 9 runs. Qureshi’s 59 gave a glimmer of hope but with 9 batsmen not getting into double figures, they were bowled out for 117 in 37 overs.

Smith (4 for 28), Huffton (3 for 38) and Hodgekins (3 for 22) reaped the benefits from the rash shot selection from the Rainhill batsmen.

In the second team game Ainsdale were inserted and were 144 all out in 41 overs.

Causey (38), Lucas (23) and Barlow (20) all got starts but failed to go on to make a big score. Atkinson (5 for 51), O’Toole (2 for 27) and Bromhead (2 for 37) got their reward for putting the ball in the right areas. Atkinson (45) and McKeown (48no) saw Rainhill pass the home total in 28 overs for the loss of 5 wickets.

Bootle 4th vs Rainhill 3rd Rainhill elected to bowl and didn’t have any answers to the aggression shown by the home team. All 6 batsmen that visited the crease got into double figures with Brady 77no and Banks 39no being the best batsmen.

Bootle declared on 213 for 4 in 39 over’s... Rainhills response was poor. Rotheram (29) , Graham (25) and Appleton (16) were the only Rainhill batsmen to get into double figures and Rainhill were all out for 98 in 30 overs.

Leigh 1st vs Rainhill 1st (Ray Digman KO) Rainhill visited Beech walk and elected to bat against a strong Leigh team with a couple of county players in their line up. Rainhill made 158 all out in 43 over’s - thanks to Brown (28), Ford (25) and Qureshi (25). Notts player – Mulhaney (4 for 25 from 8) and Lancs player Brown (3 for 25 from 8) doing the damage.

Leigh lost both Brown and Mulhaney in the same Qureshi over. His spin even being too good for the county players netted him 3 wickets for 2 runs from 9 overs. Leigh were in trouble at 79 for 5 but 50 from Shallcross and 28 from McKiernan helped their cause. At 122 for 8 Rainhill only needed two wickets for another victory over Leigh but 22no from Hewitt batting at 10 saw the home team home with 3 overs to spare for the loss of 8 wickets..