5:01pm Thursday 29th July 2010
LEIGH Cricket Club enjoyed a weekend double even after losing the services of called-up Karl Brown.
Twenty points were collected from Saturday’s win against Southport and Birkdale in the Liverpool and District Competition, while Brown was scoring his career best 65 for Lancashire at Old Trafford.
Leigh followed up on Sunday with a defeat of Lytham to reach the semi finals of the Liverpool and District Cup Competition against Ormskirk.
Southport moved to 96 for 1 despite a good opening spell from Barry Greenwood in Saturday’s game.
Tom Foster bowled well to pick up two wickets on his debut and that paved the way for a magnificent spell of spin bowling from Mattie McKiernan, who proceeded to take wickets at regular intervals.
A major Southport collapse saw them falter to 115 all out, McKiernan finishing with 5 for 28.
In reply, Leigh found the going tough and at 35 for 4 the game was in the balance.
Andy Batterley and experienced skipper Dave Dove steadied the ship with a 70-run partnership before a further Leigh wobble.
Dove's unbeaten 42 was enough to see them home.
Lytham reached 186 all out the next day, with Foster taking a further three wickets, but it was spin twins Dave Dempster (nine overs, 1 for 14) and Mattie McKiernan (nine overs, 2 for 20) who were responsible for pegging Lytham's run rate back.
Paul Keenan got Leigh off to a flyer with a quickfire 27 and this was built upon with an agressive 49 from returning Brown.
When Brown went with the score on 120 for 4, there were a few nervous faces.
Sam Baldwin and Paul Haselden confidently approached the task and proceeded to knock off the runs without further loss of wickets, each scoring an unbeaten 34, and Leigh passed their target with over nine overs to spare.
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