ST HELENS CC's miserable start to the season continued with a second defeat at the hands of Newton-le-Willows.

The wet wicket gave no help to the home team bowlers and Newton were able to declare at 159-8 with Bobby Kenny (4-45), Paul Newman (3-47) and Gary Sheppard (1-48) the wicket takers.

With five regular batsmen missing St Helens were never in the hunt and only Gary Sheppard (13) and Paul Newman (12) reached double figures with the afternoon sunshine making a drying wicket difficult to bat on.

The innings closed at 68 all out.

The shortage of first team batsmen took its toll on the second and third teams. In the reverse fixture at Newton the home side declared at 180-5 with Steve Jordan and Daniel Massey bowling well. The game ended in a creditable draw with St Helens at 137-5 thanks to excellent batting from Jeff Gore (34), Sian Twist (30) and in particular young Phil Mitchell who continued his good start to the season with 39 not out.

The third tram travelled to Southport and restricted the home side to 137 for 6 thanks to an excellent effort from Jonathan Hill who, despite lack of match practice turned in excellent figures with 4-13. Bullock (1-29) and Fee (1-13) took the only other wickets to fall.

In reply St Helens struggled to 60 all out with Barry Fee (15) and Neil Owen (11) the only ones to reach double figures. The problems with the first team were reflected in the fact that the last seven batsmen could only muster nine runs between them.