Rainford give the leaders a fright (From St Helens Star)

Rainford give the leaders a fright

11:42am Thursday 9th July 2009

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RAINFORD gave Liverpool Competition Division 1 leaders Wigan a real fright with another outstanding performance, coming within a whisker of pulling off a surprise win.

Chasing Rainford’s total of 209 the Wiganers gratefully clung on for a draw at 170 for 9.

After electing to bat Rainford made steady progress before losing Dave Tully, John R Williams and Pravin Tambe with just 40 on the board.

Chris Tonge (45) and Tom Meredith (69 not out) then repaired the damage with Tony Filson weighing in with a rapid 29 before young Meredith maturely manoeuvred the tail to take the score past 200.

After a short delay following a heavy shower, Wigan’s pursuit of their eleventh win of the campaign suffered an early set back when Mark Williams had Sean Casham caught behind by Meredith off the very first ball.

Andy Ford (68) was in good form however and the Bull Hey upper order steadily advanced the score past 100 for the loss of just four wickets with Steve Murgatroyd bagging two victims.

After Ford fell with the score on 130, Tambe (5 for 50) took a hand claiming the next four wickets in quick succession to leave the top side nine wickets down with nine balls to survive.

Gareth Bradley (27 not out) ensured that they did, denying Rainford the win, but leaving them with a very satisfying draw. Meanwhile Phil Curran’s second X1 completed a quick fire double over Whitefield 2nd XI.

On Thursday they powered to a 57 run Cotham Cup win that now sees them in the semi finals and followed this up with a nine wicket thrashing in the league on Saturday.

Steve Harrison (4 for 25) and Ravi Mistry (2 for 16) did the damage as Whitefield were dismissed for 110. Mistry (57 not out) and Matt Campbell (25 not out) then easily steered Rainford home.

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