RAINHILL ran out of time in their effort to beat played Whitefield on Monday.

They suffered an early blow when Matt Clifford fell to an excellent catch at first slip for one run.

Rainhill recovered before Dominic Sparkes was run out for 29. Some excellent batting by Peter Mercer (51) and Mike Rotheram (78) put on a century parntership and they took the total to 186 using up more of the opposition's time.

As a result of that, Whitefield played negatively throughout their innings and didn't make any attempt to go for the target.

That made hard work for the Rainhill bowlers with Nick Chapman and Dave Birkett taking two wickets each and Chris Swift taking one in a long 50 overs. Rainhill took a few more wickets but ran out of time and Whitefield ended on 124-7.

The 2nd XI went to Whitefield and put them into bat and made a generous declaration at 157-5 off 49 overs. The Rainhill bowlers didn't put any pressure on them until later in the game when Peter Swift removed their opener out for the first wicket. Steve Milnes put in an excellent 16 over stint to take 2 for 49. New boy David Walton took 1-16 and Sunday player Ross Strachan took 1-13

In reply Rainhill made steady progress with Dave Hawkins compiling a top score of 25. Phil Atherton scored a Captain's innings of an unbeaten 23 including the only six of the game, but wickets fell regularly and finished on 90 for 7.

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