THE spectators were treated to a feast of run scoring at Beech Walk as the batsmen took advantage of the perfect conditions and a flat wicket to amass a total of 463 runs.

Unfortunately, EDS Leigh went down to their third league defeat of the season against visitors Ormskirk and are now fourth from the bottom of the table.

After being put in to bat by opposing skipper David Snellgrove, Leigh were given an excellent start with a partnership of of 69 between two batsmen who were happy to get back into form after struggling in recent games, Steven Mullaney scoring 38 and Andy Batterley 30.

Tim Rees carried on the good work but the fireworks really started when the dismissal of the normally free scoring Heath Pedrola for four brought Gareth Cross to the wicket.

Amazing 76

He tore into the Ormskirk bowling and scored an amazing 76 off 48 balls including 10 fours and two sixes and when he was out stumped he had taken the score from 93 to 200 for the fourth wicket in partnership with Rees.

Rees had again timed the ball sweetly but he got tied down in the forties and was dismissed three runs short of his half century.

Leigh kept up the momentum and an early declaration was made with a score of 231-6 on the board after 46 overs and only two and a half hours batting.

This left the visitors with what would have been 65 overs to win the match and they were given a rousing start by Snellgrove (39) and Glayzer (30) who rattled up 43 in the first five overs.

John Armstrong (40) then played the sheet anchor role as Leigh turned to Vallance and Pedrola who managed to bring down the run rate to a reasonable level. Vallance conceded only 25 runs off his nine overs but the mainstay of the Leigh bowling was Pedrola whose unbroken 23 over spell earned him figures of 5-82.

His efforts turned out to be in vain as Ormskirk moved remorselessly towards their target. After losing seven wickets, they finally clinched victory with an unbroken stand of 49 between Waterhouse (30 no) and Leah (26no), eventually winning convincingly with seven overs to spare.

The regional semi-final of the National Knockout competition at home to Northern was rained off and will be played on Sunday with Leigh taking on the same opponents at Moor Park in a league fixture on Saturday.