MILESTONE FOR RICK BLACKMAN

Prestwich reclaimed pole position after Irlam defeated Woodhouses by seven wickets. John Seeary scored an unbeaten 53 for ‘Houses but Rick Blackman (5-60) and Gareth Burns (3-39) helped bowl them out for 133. It was Blackman’s 50th five wicket haul to join Damien Eyre and Chris Humphreys and was well deserved. Captain Chris Hilton scored 62 in Irlam’s win.

Prestwich went top by virtue of four points at home to Roe Green who batted first for 188-9d. Paul Green’s 95 was his 120th score of 50 or more and he went past 800 runs for the season. Chris Humphreys (4-44) and Peter Walters (3-54) were the pick of the Prestwich bowlers. Craig Duxbury (105*) recorded his 16th ton from 98 balls as Prestwich won by six wickets.

Denton dropped to third, one point ahead of D.S.L. after being bowled out for 91 in reply to the Saints 213. Matthew Wake scored an unbeaten 90 and Steve Dublin 45 whilst Danny Rice’s 5-49 was the first time he had taken five wickets. Imran Mirza followed his 3-59 with a top score 29 as Dave Morrell (5-31) and Jason Bennett (4-8) ensured an early conclusion, the latter reaching 60 wickets for the season.

Denton West stayed fifth despite losing to Flowery Field, who dismissed them for 156 (Damien Eyre 6-58). Glenn Bullock scored 43 and Robin Morris passed 800 runs for the season, but 46 from Steve Dolan and 29* from Damien Eyre (jnr) gave Flowery Field a two wicket win (Gary Leigh 5-56).

Woodbank won by 11 runs at Dukinfield after scoring 188. Paul Turner took 5-39 and Woodbank’s main resistance was supplied by Steve Loster (48), Neil Ridehaugh (40) and Sajid Shah (43). Shah followed up with 4-41 and Damien Stringer 4-59, only David Gandy (40) keeping Dukinfield in the hunt.

Stand dropped into the bottom half of the table when they went down again to Cheetham Hill. Trent Scott’s 44 took him past 500 runs but Vilas Kutty with 5-61 meant an all out total of 161 for Stand. Kutty followed with 100 not out as he and A. Raza (32*) ensured a seven wicket win.

Thornham gained a welcome four points at North Road when they had four wickets in hand in passing Glossop’s 226-8d. Bhatiya Perera’s 90 took him past 700 runs and he followed this with 4-88 which included his fiftieth wicket of the season. However 73 from John Willman and 59 from Chandi Wathukarage won the day for Thornham.