ST Helens Town's first XI. without a win for four weeks, made the trip to fellow promotion challengers Old Xaverians CC with a much changed eleven.

Davies won the toss and elected to field. The captain, in tandem with Jenions kept things extremely tight early on and this reaped rewards the home side falling to 9-3 and then 11-5 on a track displaying very few demons.

The hosts battled, but found the going extremely tough as Kenny replaced Davies and bowled his first 7 overs for 3 runs and one wicket.

Jenions continued his stinginess with the Xaverian batsmen failing to come to terms with his left arm spin. A couple of lower order partnerships allowed the hosts to scrape to 76 all out.

Spinner Jenions finished with barely believable figures of 20.4 overs 5/18.

In reply, the promising Matty Bielby fell early before Davies and Gaskell saw the visitors through to the tea interval at 34-1.

Following the restart Davies and Gaskell both fell, before Knowles chipped one back to the Xaverian leg spinner leaving the score on 42-4.

Returning batsman Andrew Critchley and Gary Williams defused the situation and calmly knocked off the remaining total, to take the St Helens side to a big win over the second placed home side.

This week's match ball was sponsored by the Cricketers Arms.