Recs record a double

The wins were mainly due to an excellent century from Scott Williams and two captain's innings from Alan Hitchmough and Neil Aconley.

The firsts travelled to North Wales and recorded an exciting last-over victory in a high scoring game whilst the seconds triumphed a little more easily at Ruskin Drive.

Electing to field first on an excellent wicket Recs tasted early success as Mike Tarran removed opener Morris and then Dyer with only 13 on the board and when Phil Baines took the wicket of Owen the home side looked in trouble at 55-3. Former Welsh minor counties player Puddle was missed first ball off Baines, and how the Ruskin side were made to pay, as Conaway and Puddle added 174 for the fourth wicket, Conaway appearing a touch fortunate to survive a confident appeal for a stumping from the bowling of Baines. Both men took advantage of their luck and, deprived on the bowling of Queensland professional Scott Williams, Tarran, Baines, Garvey and Martindale toiled manfully but could not prevent the Colwyn Bay batsmen scoring runs freely with Conaway reaching a well deserved century. Puddle also looked set to reach a century before some clever bowling frustrated him, causing him to be well caught by Keane on the mid-wicket boundary for 97, Baines and Tarran producing sterling efforts that yielded two wickets apiece as the home side declared on 229-4 after 45 overs.

Stuart Lyon and Ian Huyton began the Recs reply and added 28 before Huyton was caught for 16. A second wicket then fell on the same score as a misunderstanding between Lyon and Williams saw Lyon sacrifice his wicket as he was run out for 12. Terry Keane and Williams took the score on to 97 with Williams passing 50 runs from only 41 balls before Keane fell for 14. Alan Hitchmough's forward roll to the wicket preceded a quality innings as the skipper smashed five 4's and two 6's in a partnership of 85 with Williams which gave Recs hope of victory. Australian Williams showed all the quality expected of a State cricketer as he took control of the innings and, with Hitchmough, moved the score onto 182 before the latter was caught for 47. Williams continued to dominate and was rewarded when he reached his second century of the season from exactly 100 balls, including eleven 4's and two 6's. When he finally perished for 103, Recs were still 22 short of the target with only 18 deliveries remaining. Enter Vince Wood. A further two wickets fell on 216 and having failed to score from the next over Recs were left needing 13 from the final over. A wide first ball and a single from the next meant that the Ruskin side needed 11 from five balls, three of which proved to be surplus to requirements as Wood stroked the next two deliveries for consecutive sixes to finish on 28 not out and give Recs a three wicket victory.

The seconds, at Ruskin Drive, also elected to field against Colwyn Bay with Dave Gregson producing a fine spell which went largely unrewarded, although all the visiting batsmen struggled against the home attack. Rob Stocks (3-30) and skipper Neil Aconley (2-32) then kept the pressure on as the Welshmen declared their innings on 186-7 after 51 overs.

All of the Recs batsmen contributed to the chase with Ian Orford (33), Ste Bond (25), Mike Pilkington (25) and Dave Gregson (18) setting about the visitors bowling. Neil Aconly with 50 not out and Mark Potter with 24 not out secured the points for Recs as the home side passed the total for the loss of six wickets after only 39 overs.

The successful under 18's schoolboy side recorded two vital wins in their pursuit of the league title as they firstly accounted for Wigan and then beat Highfield in competitive games.

This weekend Recs play host to Upton on Friday evening in the semi-final of the Liverpool Echo KO, and on Saturday entertain Ormskirk in games sponsored by Sportsmatch and Midland Bank.

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