Haydock held

They travelled full of hope and, having won the toss and elected to bat, they proved once again that they have a formidable batting line-up.

Craig Gardinier survived an early scare, but thereafterplayed an innings full of authentic strokes on his way to a marvellous 40.

But Tony Derbyshire was the star of the Haydock innings as he once again produced an innings of real quality.

It was full of powerful shots mixed with the ability to nudge the single as he proved that he's no slouch between the wickets as he almost took quick singles at will, as he finished with a superb unbeaten 73.

Barry Cross was also in on the act he proved to be the perfect foil as his partnership with Derbyshire was a source of torment to the bowlers, Barry hit a marvellous 48 not out as Haydock rattled up 235-5 at tea. Tony Duffy (2-40) was the pick of the Winstanley bowlers.

The Winstanley Park reply was under pressure from the start as the Haydock bowlers were right on the mark once again. With an injury to Adrian Barr preventing him from bowling it was left to the dependable Darren Mathews, Andy Bentham and Dave Burrows to do most of the work for the visitors. The Winstanley batsmen started well Gary Mosley was top dog with a fine 48 before becoming Mathews' first victim whileTony Duffy 38 and Kevin Crompton 36 just held on as Winstanley Park made 152-9 to frustrate Haydock into a winning draw.

Darren Mathews was the pick of the Haydock bowling with a fine 3-47 Andy Bentham was in good form taking 2-32, whilst the very quick Dave Burrows had to settle for 3-43.

The second team suffered a surprising and very disappointing home defeat at the hands of Burscough to put a dent in their possible title ambitions despite one or two good personal performances.

Batting first, the visitors suffered early losses as Haydock's opening pair of Johnson and Roberts applied early pressure.

However J Norris hit a brilliant 55 helped out by B Eccleston 31 and N Lomax 21 as Burscough recovered to 164-9. Paul Johnson was the pick of the Haydock bowlers taking 3-34 in a marvellous spell of seam bowling. Paul took Roberts 3-36.

Haydock have chased bigger scores and they certainly fancied their chance here. Chris Carlisle batted superbly all through the innings even though he needed the help of a runner after picking up an ankle injury in the field, he proved what a gutsy player he is making a fine 82 before being caught in the deep. Unfortunately for Haydock Carlisle's dismissal opened the flood gates and Haydock were all out for 140.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.