RAINHILL Cricket Club won the inaugural Millennium Cup by beating Liverpool Manweb in brilliant style.

They won the toss and decided to bat first. When four quick wickets went down for 40 it was left to Peter Mercer to anchor the innings. And he compiled 26 runs in a marathon two hours.

This brought professional Paul Robinson to the crease who started the fireworks by hitting four sixes and seven fours in an unbeaten 83 to take the score in a 62 -run partnership to 102-5.

Thenanother crucial partnership of 45 with Chris Wilson not out 9 took thefinal total to 160-7 off the allotted 40 overs

The home side also stuttered along the way but recovered with M. Nickson scoring a useful 28. The Rainhill bowlers took wickets at regular intervals which kept the scoring down with Paul Robinson taking 20-2. Underrated Andy Lewis bowled really well to return 2-4. Not to be outdone Chris Swift took 3-38 and Mike Rotheram finished Liverpool Manweb off with 1-12 and theywere bowled for 130 off 34.5 overs.

Meanwhile, Rainhill notched up their third League win of the season on Saturday.

They were bowled out for only 99 off 38.5 overs by Mossley Hill. Top scorer again was Professional Paul Robinson with 29. Amazingly Rainhill won by three runs as Paul Robinson took 4-48. Mattie Dale kept their scoring down by taking 3-17. Andy Lewis claimed one wicket and Mike Rotheram took 2-8.

The 2nd XI were no match for Mossley Hill who scored a hard hitting 219-5 declared off 41 overs. In reply the seconds were bowled out for 102 with Mark Ford getting the top score of 27.

The Sunday XI didn't fare much better with Sale Moor scoring 210-4 off only 35 overs with Phil Topping being the best bower by taking 2 -30- 8 overs. After tea wickets went down quickly until Andy Birkett (43 not out) stepped in and steered the innings out of trouble with a crucial innings of 17 from Steve Gregory helping the score along. David Crossley made sure the Sunday XI survived the last 20 overs with an entertaining 11 to close at 101-8.