LEIGH CC's seven match unbeaten run in league games came to an end as they went down to a comprehensive 90 run defeat against Northern at Great Crosby.

Northern elected to bat first after Dave Dove had had his habitual bad luck with the toss and there were early successes for Ronnie Dvais who dismissed Fraser and Parry as the score reached 42. Six runs later Greg Jennings had New Zealander Jim Marshall caught by Dove for 28 and Leigh were fancying their chances.

Carl Hey, often a thorn in Leigh's side in the past, then grafted hard for 47 and together with Jim Wildman (35) helped to put his side back in control with a partnership of 76. The stand was finally broken by Ave Aware whose first two spells had produced no wickets but who ripped apart the home side's middle order batting by taking 5 for 8 in the space of 7 overs.

Northern batted on for ten minutes after the tea break before home captain Jack Woosey declared with a total of 172 for 8 off 59 overs. Aware finished with 5 for 40 off 19 overs and Davis took 2 for 25.

With Chris Melia away on holiday, Leigh had taken the opportunity to give a debut to 15-year-old leg spinner Alex Roussak who performed well as he bowled 12 confident overs for 44 runs. Gareth Cross was in great form behind the wickets taking three catches and two stumpings.

Leigh were left with a possible 50 overs to bat but with long boundaries and a very slow outfield their target was always likely to be a difficult one.

It was made no easier as Mullaney and Cross were soon added to Leigh's long catalogue of lbw dismissals this season and, although Andy Batterley scored an aggressive 30 off 26 balls, the first three wickets had fallen in only 12 overs with 43 on the scoreboard.

There was no way back after this poor start as Marshall (5 for 13) with his sharp medium pace assisted by left arm spinners Parry (3 for 14) and Woosey (1 for 13) established and maintained a complete stranglehold on the remainder of the innings.

Leigh struggled to 82 all out after having laboured through 43.4 overs. Number three batsman Dove was still there at the end undefeated on 15 having survived for 96 balls and Aware (13) registered two of only ten boundaries scored in the whole of the game.

Leigh face a potentially tricky end to the season with their remaining games being against the bottom five teams in the league who will all be striving hard to avoid relegation.

There next two games are at home with Southport and Birkdale providing the opposition on Saturday and bottom club Maghull on Bank Holiday Monday.

Captain's Log

On what appears on the face of it to be a poor display, only half the story is really told in the scoreline.

Yes, I was disappointed to lose and I was also disappointed with the manner of some of our dismissals, a trend which has been too apparent for my liking over quite a few weeks now and we simply must value our wickets more when we bat.

Having said all that, I thought there were many good points. Alex Roussak, at 15, bowled splendidly on his first team debut and didn't look out of place, which bodes well for the future. Avi Aware, our Indian bowler, claimed 5 wickets in only his second game for us and he was aided by some magnificent wicketkeeping from Gareth Cross, including two leg side stumpings which will be remembered for a long time.

There were other positive features about our performance, and it is these we must take forward into our remaining games as the gap in points between many clubs in the league remains close.

Third team stay in title contention

STEVEN Young, Leigh Third's opening batsman, regained the form that had eluded him for the last few weeks of the season.

His score of 71 out of a total of 173 put the Leigh side in a strong position against Wigan.

Leigh started steadily with Matthew Schleiner and Young putting on 23 before the former was caught and bowled. Wickets fell regularly from thereon but the scoring rate was also going along at an acceptable rate. An excellent late order partnership between Alex Roussak (37) and Ross Shepherd (15) added 47 more runs to reach the total of 173.

Ross Shepherd and all-rounder Young opened the bowling giving Leigh a good start. They held Wigan to a score of 20 in the first ten overs with Young picking up the first two wickets.

After Shepherd had bowled his allotted five over spell Alex Roussak took over and bowled a group of 8 overs also picking up a wicket but it was Young who was doing the serious damage at the other end. He took a further two wickets before being rested and replaced by James Eccleshare.

The three spinners used, Roussak, Ecclshare and Umesh Patel all bowled well and on another day would very possibly have had more success, but the wicket wasn't particularly helpful to the spinners and the Wigan opening batsman in particular picked off the runs quite comfortably.

Wigan were progressing steadily but not really threatening the Leigh total but a stubborn partnership had developed which Leigh were able to break up when Ross Shepherd was reintroduced to the attack. His second spell was extremely lively and he had the Wigan number seven playing and missing, much to the frustration of the Leigh fielders.

In his second over Shepherd produced the perfect delivery which uprooted the batsman's off stump giving him a much deserved wicket.

With overs now at a premium Wigan were not in a position to win the match and determinedly hung on for a draw. Although this was not the result second placed Leigh had wanted it was still good enough to keep them in the running for an ultimate placing in the top three maintaining their excellent record over the last three years.

Waywell is star man

LEIGH Fourths claimed their fourth win of the season by beating Highfield after being set up by man of the match Chris Waywell.

Waywell returned excellent figures of 7 for 38 in a superb performance with the ball.

Highfield were invited to bat first, and though opener Foster again enjoyed batting against Leigh, with 55 to follow the hundred scored earlier in the season, only one other batsman reached double figures as Leigh's fielders, and Waywell in particular, turned the screw.

Matthew Hibbert took a stumping and two sharp catches and though Leigh managed to put down a number of straightforward chances, eight of the wickets were caught, and the ground fielding was tight throughout.

Set a modest target of 125 to win, with plenty of time available, Leigh lost Matthew Hibbert in the first over, but recovered with a stand of 48 between Dave Grayson and Anthony Bentham, the latter eventually falling lbw for 34 with the score on 50.

Three more quick wickets saw Leigh crumble to 53 for 5, following their all too familiar recent pattern, but a mature controlled innings of 28 from young Kieran Grundy, batting with skipper Phil Edwards, produced a recovery and a stand of 50, taking the score to 103 before Grundy was bowled. Chris Waywell continued the resistance with 12 from 12 balls but was caught with 5 needed, leaving Pete Dugdale and Edwards to see it through, Edwards again undefeated on 29.