YOU just can't keep a good man down.

On Saturday Atherton professional Greg Dimery came to his side's rescue with a stunning fielding display as the Higham Park side forced a draw in their top of the table clash at Edgworth.

The following day he hit an unbeaten 65 and created his own piece of history by becoming one of the few batsmen to have passed 500 runs before the end of May.

Atherton's failure to find a settled opening pair was again evident at Edgworth as Chris Partington, the latest partner for regular opener Paul Walsh, was quickly dismissed for a duck.

Dimery was again left to face the early overs and while his innings of 24 from 78 balls was modest by his standards, he finished second top scorer behind Walsh (46) and their partnership of 66 was easily the best of the innings.

Both were out, trapped by the wiles of Edgworth pro Gary Garner who bowled round the wicket to a well set leg-side field.

The rest of the innings became a procession of batsmen queuing up to fall into Garner's trap. He finished with 6-64 as Atherton were bowled out for 166.

Dimery opened the Atherton attack and along with Ian Nuttall they soon removed the Edgworth openers but they soon turned to the spin of David Charlson and Steve Walsh.

Flourishing

Garner was in a flourishing partnership with skipper Nick Kernick, who had survived a first ball dropped catch, that threatened to win the match. But with his score on 38 Garner hoisted Charlson for what looked like a certain six until Dimery sprinted round the boundary to take a brilliant catch.

Two overs later he took an equally stunning effort, his outstretched hand clutching the ball inches from the ground. Not long afterwards he made a sharp pick-up and from 30 yards out, ran out Kernick with a direct hit for 43.

Not finished, he returned to the attack and grabbed two more wickets to finish with 3-45 as Edgworth fell short of their target by 16 runs with two wickets in hand.

The following day Little Hulton were the visitors to Higham Park and Dimery was in the thick of the action again.

This time it was a partnership with Philip West, after both openers had gone for 37, that set the platform for an home win.

They put on 109 from 29 overs and when West was caught and bowled by Little Hulton pro Ijaz Mahmood for 59, the score stood on 146 in the 42nd over. Dimery then stepped up the scoring rate and helped hoist the score to a respectable 185 for the loss of a further three wickets. Dimery carried his bat for an unbeaten 65.

The home attack was soon among the Little Hulton wickets. Nuttall clean bowled both Ijaz and David Mullineux in the space of three overs but it was Philip Wakefield who took the honours with a fine spell that earned him 5-31, included three clean bowled.

Dimery finished with 2-33, his caught and bowled dismissal of the dangerous Mark Penny being a particularly smart piece of work. Nuttall finished with 2-22 while 17-year-old David Marsh claimed his first senior wicket as Atherton claimed victory by 52.

Atherton visit Blackrod tomorrow.