RAINHILL suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of title chasers Liverpool NALGO at Victoria Terrace on Saturday.

Captain Mike Rotheram was in excellent form in compiling a superb 75 which included seven fours before being caught.

Peter Mercer kept the scoreboard ticking over to produce a 90-run partnership to take the total to a more healthy 121-2.

Dominic Sparkes chipped in with a quickfire 24 and Andy Lewis added 21 for the score to end on 184-6 declared off 59 overs.

Liverpool NALGO'S bowling attack centered on their professional Louis Botes who bowled at some pace to keep Rainhill's scoring rate down.

Although he didn't take any wickets he returned respectable figures of 43 runs off 23 overs with seven maidens. A. Morley did the damage by taking 5-76 off 20 overs.

It was quickly evident that Liverpool NALGO were high on confidence which showed in their batting when R. Simmons scored a hard hitting 66, finally being caught by Mike Rotheram off Andy Lewis's bowling. His opening partner K. White also scored a lot slower 57 when he was caught by Peter Mercer.

The first wicket went down at 116 and that brought the pro Louis Botes to the crease. He hit the winning runs with a four and a six in the 18th over of the last 20 to win the match by eight wickets.

Rainhill seconds suffered similar fate when NALGO piled on the misery to declare on 174-1 off only 34 overs. In reply the seconds did better than recent weeks in getting 101 all out with David Crossley helping Tony Wright to get 20 runs.

The Sunday XI played hosts to the Scottish touring side Haddington, of Edinburgh. They scored 166-5 off 42 overs in a timed match of three hours each.

Ross Strachan 26 not out and Phil Topping 9 not out steered Rainhill to an unlikely draw to end on 87-6 off 40 overs.

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