THE third team left a chilly overcast Leigh to find a clear blue sky over the west coast town of Hightown. After the weather of recent weeks it was a rare opportunity to play the summer game in summer conditions.

Leigh lost the toss and were asked to bat. A steady opening partnership between Paul Blackburn and Steve Williams continued into the 28th over when Blackburn was given out lbw after putting on 132 for the first wicket.

The opening partnership had given Leigh a tremendous base on which to build the rest of the innings so when Rob Higginson joined Williams they continued to add to the score for a further 10 over when Higginson was bowled. Leigh then on 195 for 2 after 38 overs allowed Mike Harding and Dan Taylor the freedom to push on the score.

Magical 100

Meanwhile Williams had already passed the magical 100 and carried on to score an undefeated 135 before the captain called in the players on a score of 220 after 41 overs.

Adam Roussak and Dan Taylor opened the bowling with both bowlers taking a wicket each leaving Hightown on 23 for two before Roussak had bowled out his spell. Jess Brett took over from Roussak and had a tidy four over spell before spin twins Michael Harding and Billy Banner took over the attack.

Hightown by this time had decided the target of 221 was far too many for them and started to bat out the remaining 32 overs without making any real attempt to reach the total.

The batsmen ground on relentlessly and the match developed into a battle of wills.

Captain Pete Taylor decided enough was enough and took the decision to try to break the partnership. Chucking up some tempters the Hightown batsmen simply paddled back the ball to the exasperation of the Leigh players. However, in his second over, the Hightown opening batsman could resist no longer and in trying to despatch the bowl only managed to edge the ball to first slip. Michael Harding was immediately reintroduced into the attack.

The battle of attrition continued with Banner and Harding bowling, on occasion, too well for the batsmen to get the edge. However, in a moment of madness one of the batsmen decided to take on a wide delivery from Banner and holed out to debutant 13 year old Kieran Grundy at point. This was a crucial catch, which the youngster never looked like missing.

From thereon Leigh continued to stick to their task, Dan Taylor was brought back on to add variety but again the batsmen blocked and blocked. With the score on 103 for 9 and only 4 overs to go Banner finally picked up the last wicket with a smart catch from Nick Jones close in on the leg side much to the delight of the Leigh players and devout travelling supporters.