ECCLESTON suffered defeat at the hands of entertained Hale at Bobbies Lane on Saturday.

Batting first, Hale reached 137-6 in their allotted overs. Top scorer was Sharp with 57 not out. He was well supported by D L Neary 34 and P O'Callaghan 20.

Five Eccleston bowlers share the burden with D Ashurst (3-36) the pick of them. H Ashurst claimed 1-19 from 14 overs and K Holden 1-38. A promising Eccleston batting line up soon started to wilt from some accurate Hale bowling, reaching only 87 all out.

Top score came from man of the match D Ashurst with an aggressive 27. Other contributions came from A Atherton 14 and J Parry 13.

Hale's best bowler was Jones (5-25) with O'Callaghan (2-20) and Burgess (3-31).

With a very inexperienced side the Second XI were put in to bat at Hale. With some accurate bowling on a very unpredictable wicket Eccleston reached 64 with Paul Lynan top scorer with 10, other contributions came from Spike Gornall 8 and D Gee 7.

When Hale came to the crease wickets fell rapidly. It was only a resilient 42 from Nightingale which helped them overcome the Eccleston total.

The pick of the Eccleston bowlers was D Gee 3/21.

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