MATCHES against the ultra-competitive Wallasey side, who are the current Littlewood's Gaming Liverpool Competition champions, are never easy and EDS Leigh's third successive win against them was a tremendous triumph.

They finally managed to shake off their recent inconsistent form and produced a match winning performance when it really mattered against top opposition with Gareth Cross and Brendon Donkers starring in a 45 run victory.

Leigh had made a poor start to the game with the previous week's hero Andy Batterley being brought down to earth by being caught off the second ball of the innings. Tim Rees (18) was unable to reproduce his midweek heroics for Lancashire 2nd XI and Steven Mullaney and Heath Pedrola both went cheaply.

With the score on 35 for 4, Cross and Donkers then produced a match winning partnership of 82 with Cross attacking at every opportunity and Donkers relying mainly on his superb defensive technique as they batted together for 23 overs.

Dominate

After the departure of Donkers, caught behind for 19, Cross continued to dominate the bowling until he was eighth man out with 151 runs scored in all. His 87 magnificent runs came off 121 balls and included 16 fours to prove once again what an outstanding young cricketer he is.

Leigh were dismissed for 158 after 50 overs with Paul Thistlethwaite taking 5 for 74 off 18 overs.

Any thoughts that the visitors may have had about an easy win were soon dispelled as they lost their first four wickets for 58 due mainly to an aggressive opening spell by Donkers who took three wickets including last year's league player of the season Phil Luxon and Zimbabwean Test star Paul Strang.

Opposing skipper Mike Beaver and Dave Conlan staged a recovery to take the score to 89 for 5 but Donkers (5 for 34) returned to the attack to finally realise his potential with a superb display of pace bowling. With Pedrola (4 for 30) weaving his magic with his off spin at the other end, Wallasey collapsed in spectacular fashion and were all out for 113 in the 44th over.

The irrepressible Cross rounded off a top class personal performance by holding on to five catches behind the stumps.

Leigh face another tough test on Saturday as they make the journey to the Fylde to take on the resurgent Lytham side.