GRAPPENHALL suffered a heavy defeat at fellow relegation strugglers Bramhall who posted an amazing 321-3 declared in 52 overs.
They hammered an incredible 120 from the last nine overs of their innings – and considering the way they batted, Sam Guest’s figures of 2-44 off 17 overs were quite remarkable.
James McCoy continued his late season form to post his third consecutive half-century and Pete Barnes contributed a useful 32, but there was little of note from the rest of the Grappenhall line-up and relegation from the Cheshire County League premier division is now a real possibility.
Fortunately, fellow-strugglers Hyde also lost but Grappers are now only 19 points clear of the drop with two games left to play. Their position is not made any easier by their next game – a visit from title-chasing Nantwich.
By contrast, Grappenhall 2nd kept up their own push for promotion with a comfortable seven wicket win over Bramhall at Broad Lane.
Bramhall posted a solid 188-5, with Steven Rooney picking up three wickets. Will Sharp and Iain Wright took Grappers to the brink of victory with knocks of 77 and 67 respectively.
On Saturday, Grappers will travel to neighbours Warrington who are also pushing for promotion.
Warrington’s went down by five wickets against division one leaders Oulton Park, ending any hope they had of avoiding relegation.
Put in to bat, they made a good start with a second wicket partnership between Malcolm Agar, 42 and Ashley Scholes, 46. More runs came from Brad McIntosh, 33, but after that Warrington lost their way with the last five wickets falling for 50 as they were dismissed for 164.
Aaron Soni, 2-25 and Johan Els, 1-20 took early wickets and McIntosh, 2-28, grabbed two late wickets but Oulton Park coasted home without further trouble.
Warrington 2nd also went down to Oulton Park, despite a century from James Sharrock, 109 and 65 from Harley Barrett to post what seemed a competitive total of 234.
But Oulton Park reached their target with only four wickets down with Barrett, 2-41, the pick of the bowlers.
Warrington 4th drew with Styal, who batted first and reach 167-8 thanks to some loose bowling. Warrington replied with 139-8 with Paul Agar hitting 69 and Senthil 37.
Lymm Oughtrington Park went down by 113 runs at Haslington after their bowlers conceded 205 runs as the home side batted first.
Andy Hossack tokk 4-58 and skipper Travis Scholes 3-48 but could not prevent Haslington setting a challenging total on the day.
Lymm’s batsmen found the going hard, however, and only opener Matthew Carr, 14, and Kerry Anderson, 23, reached double figures as the depleted side crashed out for 92.
The 2nd XI game also went Haslington’s way, with Lymm’s total of 150-9 proving insufficient to earn a victory. Opener Steven Gladwin hit 48, Richard Hughes 36 and Bhargava Kumar 24.
Things looked to be going well for Lymm with half the visitors’ batsmen back in the pavilion with onlyh about 40 on the board. But the tail fought back and Haslington eventually reached their target with two wickets to spare.
Pick of the Lymm bowlers were Graham Waumsley, 3-30, Tony Spaven, 2-26 and Shovan Chatterjee, 2-37.
Stretton won by one wicket after a nail-biting finish at Chester County Officers.
The home side were dismissed for 102, which looked like an easy target. But Stretton struggled for runs and their last pair were at the wicket when they passed the winning post.
Stretton 2nd registered a comfortable victory over Bunbury, batting first and reaching 218-8. Openers Richard Taylor, 63 and H Salim, 72 starred with the bat.
Bunbury were dismissed for 88, Umer Zeb returning an astonishing 7-36 in 12 overs.
Appleton picked up a useful 37 run victory at Over Peover after batting first and hitting 184-6.
The home side could only muster 147.
Appleton 2nd got the better of a drawn game with Warrington 3rd, batting first and hitting 190-4. Warrington were 115-7 when the overs ran out.
Appleton 3rd travelled to Mere to take on Europa Exiles and hit 143-7, Jim Warham hammering 52 and Roger Cawthorn 33 not out.
The home side were never in the hunt but managed to hang on at 83-9 to earn a draw. Warham and Cawthorn were again in form, each claiming three wickets.
Glazebury were rolled over for 90 at Tranmere Victoria, with veterans Paul Warhurst, 23 and Simon Green, 21, top scoring.
Tranmere knocked off the runs for the loss of just two wickets.
Glazebury enjoyed a 115-run victory over Wilmslow at Hurst Lane.
Batting first, they declared on 187-8. Ian Black hitting 35 and Paul Charlton 51.
Wilmslow were tumbled out for 72, with Charlton again starring with a haul of 6-17 in nine overs.
