It was 3rd vs 4th at Overdale Lane as the Men’s 1st XI hosted Hawk Green with the visitors electing to bat first. Matt Holland (1/32) made the breakthrough in the 7th over, with Ethan Yeo (1/31) following it up with a wicket in his first over to make it 28/2 after 11 overs. With Benedict Verma bowling an excellent miserly spell at the other end (7 overs, 4 maidens, 0/7), pressure was built which James Hodkinson capitalised upon with a caught and bowled to make it 53/3 after 20 overs. Matt Worsdale was brought into the attack and started with a wicket maiden and Ciaran McDonnell (1/19) made a further breakthrough before having to leave the attack through injury. Hoskinson was brough back into the attack and took two further wickets to finish with excellent figures of 3/19 from his 10 overs with 5 maidens. McDonnell’s replacement in the attack, Craig Phelan (1/6), picked up his second wicket of the season and Worsdale (3/26) returned to the attack to finish things off as he took the final two wickets with Hawk Green being bowled out for 147.

James Norton and Matt Worsdale made an excellent start to the chase, reaching fifty without loss. Despite both openers falling for 31 and 25 respectively to see the score at 65/2, Craig Phelan and James Hodkinson continued nicely. Hodkinson fell for 19 and Ethan Yeo for 2 to give Hawk Green a hope at 100/4, but Phelan (33*) and Zach Howdle (24*) saw Oakmere home without any further worries.

Hale Barns 2nd XI (179 all out) vs Oakmere Men’s 2nd XI (153 all out) – Hale Barns won by 26 runs

The Men’s 2nd XI travelled to Hale Barns hoping to repeat the feat of the first team who were winning visitors to the same ground on the Saturday prior. The home side won the toss on this occasion and elected to bat first, making a solid start by reaching 62 before the first wicket fell as Harry Poole (1/25) found an edge which was caught by a leaping Paul Guilford in the slips. Aaron Court made the second breakthrough before testing spells from Dave Purcell (1/25) and Hamish Shovelton (1/48) were backed up with solid fielding to keep runs at a premium. Matt Howard (3/40) and Court (4/24) returned to the attack and shared the remaining wickets as Hale Barns were bowled out for 179 with Court also taking two solid catches in the deep.

Oakmere’s chase got off to a terrible start, falling to 51/6 before Ian Eaton and Dan Faulkner dug deep. The pair batted stoically from the 24th over to take the game deep, meaning that 80 were required from the final 10 overs. The pair took this to 47 required from the final 6 before Eaton was caught well at backward point for an excellent 73. Getting started whilst needing 8 runs per over was always going to be difficult, and so it proved as the final three wickets fell in the next 3 overs as Oakmere were all out for 153 with Faulkner remaining unbeaten on 28.

Leigh 1st XI (89/1) vs Oakmere Women’s 2nd XI (87 all out) – Leigh won by 9 wickets (NRR)

The Women’s 1st XI travelled to title chasing Leigh for their final fixture of the season and were asked to bat first with heavy rain around. Leah Holland (9) and Phoebe Cottam (24) got Oakmere off to a solid start which Rachel Warrenger and Kerry Hartnett continued with. After 20 overs, Oakmere had a solid platform at 70/2 but a significant rain delay followed. This saw the game shortened to a 23 over a side contest, meaning that Oakmere only had a further 3 overs to add to their score. Rach and Kerry both finished unbeaten on 22, as they pushed the Oakmere score onto 87/2.

With no DLS in play, Leigh’s target stood at 88 from 23 overs. Sarah Worsdale (1/30) made a breakthrough in the 3rd over but there was no further joy for Oakmere as Leigh reached their target in the 11th over.

The defeat means that the Women’s 1st XI have finished the season in 6th position in the league, having won 5, lost 8 and one game being rained off.

Lymm Oughtrinton Park 1st XI (DNB) vs Oakmere Women’s 2nd XI (DNB) – Match Postponed

The Women’s 2nd XI’s final fixture of the season was postponed due to persistent heavy rain on Sunday. They will try again on Thursday evening.