ANYBODY looking forward to watching two highly talented batting line-ups in opposition at Beech Walk on Saturday would have been greatly disappointed as the weather caused Leigh CC's match against league leaders Bootle to be abandoned without a ball being bowled.

But Leigh's supporters were adequately compensated on the following day as their team were pushed all the way by visitors Fleetwood Hesketh in an exciting Littlewood's Gaming Knockout Trophy tie.

Fleetwood Hesketh are currently pushing hard for promotion from the First Division and, after demolishing Premier Division opposition in the form of their near neighbours Southport and Birkdale in the previous round, they were obviously fired up for a repeat.

With the wicket offering some early assistance to the bowlers, Leigh were shocked to lose Andy Batterley to the first ball of the match and in form Steve Mullaney soon afterwards for 10.

It was Tim Rees who was mainly responsible for restoring Leigh to safety as, although he lost partner Dave Dove for 9 with the score on 66, he played a highly responsible innings against excellent bowling by S.Rimmer (0 for 19) and Appleton (2 for 26).

Remarkably, Appleton was allowed by the umpires to exceed his quota of overs and Rees was unfortunate to be caught and bowled for 52 off the last ball of his tenth over, the score then being 100 for 4 in the 30th over of the innings.

Liam Zammit joined Gareth Cross who had played himself in carefully and uncharacteristically took 18 balls to get off the mark. Once into his stride, however, he produced a wonderful array of attacking shots including an incredible six off the back foot over cover point off quick bowler Bernard. He scored 61 off 62 balls including 5 fours and 3 sixes and, with Zammit also manufacturing shots all around the wicket, the visiting bowlers were taken apart as the score rapidly advanced to 178 in the 40th over before Cross was bowled.

Zammit was then well supported by Ronnie Davis (19 off 13 balls) and Steve Williams (12 not out off 9 balls) before he was run out off the last ball of the innings having scored 34. Leigh's final total of 220 for 8 included 115 scored off the last 13 overs.

Fleetwood Hesketh showed that they were quite capable of making a fight of it as N.Rimmer (38) and Bernard (38) helped to take the score to 110 for 3 after 26 overs. Only a fine spell of spin bowling by Chris Melia had kept them in check as he took 2 for 22 off his 9 over stint.

They continued to push the score along and were always in with a chance. However, Craig Wilson bowled tidily to finish with 3 for 42 and Cross, who had opened the bowling in the absence of Greg Jennings who was on holiday, returned to the attack to pick up 3 for 38 as the visitors were dismissed for 208 in the penultimate over to give Leigh a hard earned 12 run victory. Leigh will travel to take on neighbours Newton-le Willows in the quarter finals after their shock win over cup holders Wallasey.

Another exciting weekend is in prospect with Leigh's next match at Lytham where they will take on a side who are currently in top form after taking over from Bootle as league leaders. This is followed on Sunday by the Thwaites Lancashire Knockout quarter final tie at South West Manchester.