A TIGHT bowling performance from Chris Hall and sensible batting from Mike Day laid the foundations for Genlec Leigh CC's fourth league victory of the year and move them up into second place in the Liverpool DCA Premier League table.

Winning the toss, Leigh chose to bowl first of a wicket tinged with green and immediately made inroads as Mike Holden struck twice in his first three overs, both thanks to slip catches by Hall, to leave the home side on 11-2.

A brief recovery between Southport captain Mark Warren and Indian Test player Abby Kuruvilla took the score through to 65.

However, Hall's introduction into the attack paid off almost immediately as Andy Mullaney picked up the first of his four slip catches to remove the potentially dangerous Indian.

As Hall settled into a good rhythm wickets continued to fall at regular intervals. No-one was able to survive long against the wily off-spinner and provide any kind of support for the captain. Six Southport batsmen failed to trouble the scorers. Leigh eventually dismissed their opponents for 117 with warren remaining undefeated on 65 but having been dropped before reaching double figures.

In reply, Leigh followed their hosts' example and lost two wickets before they had 10 on the board. However a solid partnership between Day and Hall took the visitors to within 50 of their target before Hall was out for a patient 24.

Having previously finished with 6-23 off 11.4 overs, he was the only serious candidate for man of the match.

Day continued to work hard to ensure there would be no banana skins on the way to a comfortable victory. A whirlwind 19 from Mullaney, including two straight sixes onto the tennis courts, took all the pressure out of the situation.

Day was out with the scores level, just short of a well deserved half-century, and it was left to Rob Clews to smash Kuruvilla over extra cover for the winning runs.