RAINHILL gave their league position a big boost by beating Tranmere Vics on Saturday.

Having lost the toss, Rainhill were put into bat and lost an early wicket. Matthew Clifford stroked the ball around with 10 boundaries before being trapped LBW for 49. A partnership of 81 was forged with Peter Mercer when he was bowled for 37.

Dominic Sparkes chipped in with a quick fire 22 off 21 balls and then there was a collapse with three wickets going down at 109. Captain Mike Rotherham decided they had enough runs and declared on 140-8 off only 40 overs fordouble batting points.

After tea, the Rainhill bowlers made their presence felt because Tranmere Vics wickets were going very regularly. David Birkett removed the main batsmen with figures of 2-12 and David Rowe rooted out the middle order by taking 4 -18.

Andy Lewis then finished off the tail with 3-10 as Tranmere Vics finished on 73 all out.

Meanwhile, back at Victoria Terrace, the seconds tried to put the brakes on Tranmere Vics' free scoring. The only way Rainhill got the first two wickets was by quick thinking fielders who ran the openers out.

But the best bowling was from left-arm over-the-wicket David Walton who swung the ball across the right-handers and got a slip catch finishing with fine figures of 3- 31. Tranmere Vics declared on 188 for 6 off 49 overs. In reply, Rainhill made a positive start as the first wicket only went down at 33 with Dave Hawkins scoring 20 of them. Ken Bold kept the scoreboard ticking over by hitting seven fours in his unbeaten 66.

Phil Topping went to the crease and made a 45 run partnership with Ken Bold and was not out 14.

Rainhill just missed out on three batting points and ended on 124-5, a well earned draw.

The Sunday XI provided a very entertaining game at Victoria Terrace against Whitefield. Captain Joe Crossley missed out on the run spree as the middle order took charge.

A 65-run partnership was soon made with Mark Candeland chipping in with 20 and partner Jeff Fitzhenry hit a smashing 59 including eight fours and two sixes. But, the best innings of all was Nick Green's quick hitting 43 off only 17 balls and hit the poor bowlers for three sixes and four fours to declare on 188-7 off 43 overs.

Whitefield continued the entertainment with Mark Ness (a first team player) scoring a free flowing 96 not out (after several calculations), unfortunately just short of a century. Under 15 Colts' player Matthew Dooling plugged away and bowled 2 batsmen out ending on 2- 58 after a non stop spell of 13 overs.

Ross Strachan did the most bowling and took 3 - 69 off 15 overs. Nick Gamble took 2 sharp slip catches to get Rainhill back into the game.

But as the last 20 overs from 6.53 pm were being played, Whitefield were getting ever closer to our total. In the final over they needed 15 to win off 6 balls but scored 14. Therefore, the scores were exactly level and a tie was reached.

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