Dukes Division Two

OULTON extended their lead at the top of the table after clinching a narrow win over Bignall End.

They looked set fair for a comfortable win after routing Bignall for just 114, helped by three-wickets each for Pradeep Jeyapragashtharan and Harish Patel.

But Oulton fared almost as poorly and devastating spells from David Moreton and Simon Howle left them in trouble.

Eventually, Andrew Dawson hit the winning runs to see them home to a one-wicket win.

Nearest challengers Ashcombe Park were forced to settle for a draw with Betley after backing down from chasing the visitors' impressive 273-5 total.

Richard Bebbington (73) and Jamie Jervis (71) drove the Betley innings with able assistance from Chris Henderson (48).

Tom Boulton (60) and Craig Whalley (43) got Ashcombe off to a cracking start.

Then Dave Clowes (63) helped Boulton along as the runs flowed freely. But Ashcombe lost six wickets for 47 runs as Darren Snape and Dave Follett broke their resolve and were happy to share the honours when Mitch Cartlidge was the ninth man out with their total stalling on 248.

Weston moved up to third thanks to an 87-run win over Silverdale.

Professional Raj Kumar's 121 was the foundation for an impressive total of 242-7 as the Weston batsmen made the hosts toil all afternoon.

Silverdale were in trouble at 60-7 in reply as Phillip Stockton (5-50) did the damage.

But Stephen Jones (82) offered real resistance and took the Silverdale response to 155 before he ran out of partners.

Caverswall won their fourth game of the summer as unbeaten knocks from Karl Cassidy (54) and Rob King (48) helped their side coast home to an eight-wicket win against Stone SP.

Chris Baranowski's tight spell with the ball (5-38) restricted Stone SP to 134 all out.

Alsager had to settle for a draw with Checkley after the home side posted a big total of 245-8.

John Pickles (63) and Alvin Beardmore (52) top scored, while Gareth Rowe (4-83) was the pick of the Alsager attack.

Muhammed Arshad (53no) and Chris Hampshire (58) tired in vain to pursue the target, but Alsager ran out of overs on 193-5.

Meanwhile, Meakins cruised to a nine-wicket win over Newcastle and Hartshill, who were skittled for 127 thanks to four-wicket hauls from Zaffir Ikbal and Ranil Dhammika.