ST HELENS Recs suffered a six-wicket defeat at Fleetwood Hesketh on Saturday.

Winning the toss, Recs elected to for first use of the wicket.

But batting was always a struggle. However, Martindale persevered and was eventually out for 27. When he went the Recs lost wickets and looked to be in trouble until Potter stepped to the crease.

Playing a mature innings in a dire situation he scored a magnificent 63 which enabled Recs to reach a more respectable 151 all out off 40 overs.

In reply the home side had plenty of time to reach the total and inched their way towards it. The batsmen never looked in trouble despite Garvey producing figures of 2-30 off eight overs and reached 152 for 4 with 10 overs to spare.

At Ruskin Drive the Second XI played hosts to New Brighton and batted first. Ford gave them a good start and was ably supported by Lyon.

When Lyon was out for 24 they had pushed the score up to 60-2. Ford was eventually dismissed for 42 and a flurry of wickets followed him leaving Recs in a precarious position.

Tarran (26) and Galbraith (26) steadied the ship, enabling Recs to declare on 160-8 off 50 overs.

In reply New Brighton struggled to find the runs but still kept up the chase, Ford came on to bowl and finished with figures of 3-48 off 11 overs. In an exciting finish 10 runs were needed from the final over, any hope of a victory for the visitors was dashed as Anders (3-30 off 13 overs) removed the ninth man and both sides settled for the draw, New Brighton reaching 156 -7 off 45 overs. The Third SH were at home to Northern AN and elected to bat first.

What followed was an awesome display of batting with Pilkington completely dominating the proceedings. Batting with Gregson, who hit a quickfire 35, he put on a stand of 101, and was then supported by Ian Orford who finished with 27 not out.

Pilkington never looked in trouble as he reached a chanceless one hundred and went on to score a superb 131 not out as Recs declared on 227-3 off 37 overs.

In reply Northern lost both openers cheaply and gave up the chase at an early stage. Despite excellent spells of bowling from Mike Burrows (2- 33 off 13 overs) and Stocks (4-41 off 14 overs) catches were dropped and the match slipped away from Recs who had completely dominated the game. Northern finished on 128 for 7 off 50 overs to draw the match.

The Third DG travelled to Wales visiting Northop Hall and asked the home team to bat.

This looked a dubious decision as the home side raced to 70-2 but with the introduction of spin the runs dried up quickly.

Pye was on fire as he deceived the batsmen with his leg spin, he smashed the middle order finishing with figures of 6-16 off 10 overs and with Parsonage chipping in with 2-32 off seven overs Northop Hall were all out for 124 from 34 overs. In reply the Recs batsmen enjoyed themselves chasing the total, in particular, Logan destroyed the bowling attack hitting 4 sixes and 14 fours in a delightful innings of 83 not out as Recs reached 125-2 off only 12.5 overs to win the game easily.

This weekend the first XI are at home to Newton, the sponsors being Autopoint and Gavins Butchers.

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