MEMOREX Leigh CC kept their championship hopes alive with a sensational 67-run victory over league leaders Wallasey.

They saw off their aggressive visitors with a combination of gutsy middle order batting, brilliant bowling and fielding to set up an exciting finale to the season at the weekend.

Leigh elected to bat first after winning the toss and made a terrible start losing Steven Mullaney to the first ball of the match. Worse was to follow with Davis, Dove and Batterley following in quick succession and things looked bleak indeed at 14-4.

Recovery

Gareth Cross hit the first two balls he faced for four and initiated a recovery in partnership with Jo Angel. They took the score to 38 when almost half an hour was lost to rain. On resumption Cross was brilliantly stumped by McCullagh off Hemsworth for 26 with the total on 48 but in-form Steve Bailey then helped Angel maintain the momentum.

Angel was eventually caught for 33 after adding 43 with Bailey who scored an aggressive 30 before being bowled attempting to pull a short ball from Zimbabwian Test player Paul Strang. The lower order chipped in with some useful runs and Leigh's all out total of 129, although not sizeable, was more than they could have expected earlier in the afternoon.

For the visitors, left arm opening bowler Paul Thistlethwaite continued his recent good form by taking 5 for 38.

Wallasey were in trouble right from the start of their innings against the usual superb quick bowling of Angel and Davis backed up by top class fielding.

First to go was Rob Turnbull who slipped when being sent back after setting off for a run and was smartly run out by Greg Jennings. Captain Mike Beaver soon followed trapped lbw by Angel and two brilliant diving one handed slip catches by Dave Potter accounted for danger men Luxon and Strang.

Well caught

Wallasey's other leading batsman Dave Conlan then mis-hooked a short ball from Angel and was well caught by wicketkeeper Cross after sprinting 20 yards to get to the ball. Incredibly, after 11 overs, Wallasey were 16-5 and well on the way to a crushing defeat.

Zak Feather briefly threatened a recovery but, after losing partner Hughes well caught by Ben Cottrell off the bowling of Potter, he holed out for 21 to a great running catch by Jennings at mid-wicket also off Potter. There was only token resistance from the tailenders as the visitors rapidly subsided to a disastrous 62 all out off only 27.2 overs.

Davis mopped up the tail to finish with 4 for 30, Angel claimed 3 for 17 and Potter chipped in with 2 for 13.

Leigh have now moved up into second place in the league behind Wallasey and a win at Northop Hall in their last match of the season on Saturday, coupled with failure to win by the Wirral side, could bring the Liverpool Competition championship to Beech Walk for the first time. Wallasey have a difficult game at third placed Bootle who also still have a chance of finishing top of the league if they win and Leigh fail.