ECCLESTON CC's depressing start to the season continued as they visited Hale CC.

After winning the toss Eccleston invited their opponents to bat first on a damp wicket, and opening bowler Burrows ripped out Hale's top three batsmen all for ducks.

All the other batsmen continued to find scoring difficult and it was only due to some poor fielding in the final overs that Hale managed to finish on 103-8 from 42 overs.

Burrows (5 for 12 from 13 overs) and H Ashurst (3-29) were the Eccleston wicket takers.

Eccleston thought a first win of the season was a formality, but another display of dreadful batting on an admittedly poor wicket saw them reduced to 16-6 in the 20th over and only another dogged performance from captain Matthews (34) stopped a total capitulation, as Eccleston ended their innings on 67.

Several first team 'stars' must now fear the axe down to the second XI, who under the new leadership of T Roberts began to show some fight in the rain effected fixture on a lively Bobbies Lane.

Batting first Eccleston scored 98 from their 32 overs with Roberts (26) first team prospect K Smith (33) and evergreen A Valentine (18) showing the way. An excellent spell of bowling from P Lynan of 5 for 19 from 14 overs meant Hale never got into the game. But Eccleston ran out of overs.

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