ST HELENS CC collected a hard-fought victory over New Brighton on Saturday.

Winning the toss gave Neil Woods the opportunity to ask New Brighton to bat first on a damp wicket which made the bounce unpredictable.

The St Helens bowlers responded to the conditions and New Brighton found themselves back in the pavilion with only 114 runs on the board.

Banerjee (3-29) Jordan (2-28) Sheppard (2-10) and Roughley (1-20) all bowled well. St Helens found run making equally difficult and after losing Gareth Davies in the first over, it was left to Roger Burrows, making his first team debut this season, to anchor the innings and finish with 39 not out.

Useful partnerships with Darren Tyms (15) Subu Banerjee (25) and finally Neil Woods (18 not out) saw St Helens home at 115 for 6.

The second team bowlers were made to look very ordinary at New Brighton who raced to 130-1 off only 18 overs and finally declared at 226-5. In the circumstances Ian McCabe's contribution of 3-37 was a magnificent achievement and showed what could be done when concentrating on line and length. The batsmen showed more application and managed to come away with a draw. David Lowe (51) Ian Lawless (40) and Daniel Massey (18) took the score to 187-9 at the close.

The third team found life at the top can be very difficult, especially in a derby game with St Helens Recs. With the score at 103-3 off less than 20 overs St Helens were sitting pretty and the top batsmen of John Elliot (21) Mark Malone (18) Karl Boardman (21) Ste Fell (18) and Gaz Bass (20) must have felt happy with the situation.

Recs however decided to re-write the script and the next six batsmen were dismissed for a total of nine runs and a final total of 119 all out. Alan Davies cleaned up the tail with 4-11 assisted by Neil Chorley with 3-26.

On the resumption S Logan showed his respect for the bowling in a hard hitting 50 out of 120-6. Ste Fell was the only bowler to impress with 3-32.

The young Indian Galaxy touring side made two visits to St Helens during the week, winning both games against a Liverpool Compilation under 19 team and a St Helens club side.

The second team entertain Hightown at home next Saturday.

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