GRAPPENHALL, suffering from a mid-season slump, dropped into the Vivio Cheshire County League relegation zone after a five wicket defeat at Chester Boughton Hall.
At the start of the season, Grappers beat the Chester side at Broad Lane but there was to be no repeat of that success as they were dismissed for a totally inadequate 119 – of which Arthur Pennington hit 44. Ben Bodha hit 20 and James Jenkinson 21 with some late hitting that included two sixes.
Sam Guest claimed 3-39 when the home side batted, but Chester comfortably reached 121-5.
By contrast, Grappenhall 2nd moved into the promotion zone with a fine win over Urmston at Broad Lane.
Batting first, they hit 227-8, Steve Rooney 49, Matt Titchard 65 not out and Arran McCabe 32.
The visiitors were tumbled out for 134 with Titchard claiming 4-16, Scott Woodland 3-37 and Ben Cagna 3-8.
Grappenhall 3rd drew an ill-tempered game at home to relegation threatened Didsbury, who batted first and posted a strong 206 with controversy and some questionable decisions going on throughout the innings.
Neil Titchard took 3-36.
Grappers lost a couple of early wickets but with a very young side, the run chase was always going to be difficult.
Alex Perry hit an excellent 41 and skipper David Seed socred an excellent 59 not out.
Warrington hit 218-9 against Marple at Walton Lea, Johan Els top scoring with 61, Brad McIntosh hitting 36, Richard Heaney, 25 and Rob Batey 23.
The visitors made hard work of their reply but scraped a win with one wicket to spare.Ashley Scoles took 3-56 and James Rudd 3-52.
Warrington 2nd went down by 15 runs at Bowdon after the home side had totalled 155-8 – of which four were run out! But Warrington could only muster 140, Mark Ewing hitting 64 not out and only two other batsmen reaching double figures.
Travelling to Oxton, Warrington 3rd bowled out the hosts for 110, Harry Charvill taking 5-10. But their batting subsided to 86 all out, with Tim Rothwell’s 24 the high point of the innings.
In the UK Fast Cheshire League, Lymm Oughtrington Park went down by just 15 runs at Ashton-on-Mersey.
Travis Scholas took 4-52 and Andy Hossack 4-41 as the home side hit 180-9. But although several batsmen started promisingly, they were bowled out for 165. Nafees Din hit 35, Dan Timber 32 and Matthew Carr 26.
Lymm Oughtrington Park 2nd went down by seven wickets against Bredbury St Marks at Oughtrington Lane.
Steven Gladwin hit 327, Richard Harper 22 and Asim Shah 20 as Lymm hit 149. The visitors coasted to 151-3, with Jake Hughes taking 2-29.
Appleton hit 157-7 against visiting Cholmondeley – and that was enough to set up a 14 run victory.
Ben McDonald top scored with 40, Graeme Rowards hit 22 and James Darbyshire 22 not out. Cholmondeley were dismissed for 143, Amir Rashid taking 3-42 and Andrew Jackson 3-31.
Ian Mason hit a superb, unbeaten 102 as Appleton 2nd hit 214-2 at Barrow. He got good support from Dave Lomas, 41 and Lee Manion 46 not out. But the home side staged a determined bid for victory and were 210-9 when the game ended in a draw. Jim Warham took 3-52 and Dave Sujith 2-28 for Appleton.
Appleton 4th fought out an exciting tie with Pott Shrigley, who batted first and hit 135. Phil Jackson took 3-26 and Mike Wharton 3-19.
Wharton followed this up with a well struck 33 when Appleton replied with 135-9. Dave Darbyshire hit 24.
Stretton bowled out homesters Wistaston Village for 84, Ali Sher taking 5-13. But they also found runs hard to get and lost nine wickets reaching victory. Ali Zubain, 35 not out, was the mainstay of their batting.
Stretton 2nd won by five wickets after bowling out Oxton for 109.
Glazebury lifted themselves from their bottom-of-the-table position with a timely victory over Audlem at Hurst Lane.
Their 114 did not look like a match-winning total but the visitors were turned over for 58 thanks to the pace of Sam Stanier, 5-11, Dave Acton 3-21 and Christopher Ayre 2-18.
Acton top-scored with 30, Anthony Meulman hit 22 and Jack Warhurst added 20.
Glazebury 2nd took on Europa Exiles – who they had defeated earlier in the season – and bowled them out for 103, Jack Whitehead taking 4-19. But then their batting collapsed completely as they were bowled out for 18.
