SIXTEEN-year-old Patrick Travers led the way as Leigh's second string visited league champions, Bootle, in a group match of the Premier League Cup Competition game.

Facing strong and experience opponents, Leigh had suffered a set back before the start with the late withdrawal of skipper, Dave Jennings. It was Jennings' late withdrawal that allowed Travers back into the side and he took his chance with both hands.

Batting first, despite a solid start from Neil Williams and veteran Steve Whalley, who finished with 32, a collapse in the visitor's middle order had left them struggling at 79-7 wickets. However Travers, with support from James Eccleshare, 19, initially steadied the ship and then produced their own counter-attack to take Leigh through to a respectable, albeit still less than par, 169 all out.

Patrick was the ninth wicket to fall, for a gritty 54, which included a number of sumptuous drives though extra cover in his six boundaries.

In reply, Bootle were put under pressure with accurate straight bowling from the young Leigh attack. However, a tendency to release the pressure built up, with a final loose ball in the over, allowed the home team to keep up with the run rate despite a steady stream of wickets on their way to 80.

The main damage was done by the medium pace of Travers who bowled nine overs on the reel, picked up three wickets and made the home batters work for every run. He finished with three for 24 and was well backed by 15-year old Graeme Thomason and Eccleshare.

In the final analysis however Bootle had more werewithall and they overhauled the target for the loss of four wickets with three overs to spare.