EARLESTOWN first team's poor run of form continued as they returned from their trip to Flixton on the wrong end of a six wicket defeat.

Ian McCue elected to bat on an excellent wicket, but Earlestown were bowled out for a disappointing total of 174 in the last of their 50 overs.

Indeed, they were indebted to a thrilling innings of 98 by Sajjad Ahmed for getting them even that far, before the Town all rounder was caught just two short of his century.

The home side lost their first wicket at 24, but were never really in danger from that point.

Only Phil McCue, with 3-24, made any real impact as Flixton cantered home on 176-4 with five overs to spare.

The second team's fixture back at the Viaduct brought much better news as Town recorded their third win of the season against last year's champions.

Farid Suriga smashed an excellent 62 and Pete Brookes, 41, also starred as Town posted a challenging target of 161.

And after Paul Jay and Bob Williams both struck an early blow, Flixton were never in the hunt.

Williams, 4-13, was the spearhead of the attack with Jay, Pete Gurney and Liam Fletcher all picking up two wickets apiece.

The Sunday team opened their defence of the WLCL Cup with a comfortable win over St. John's in their Group B clash at the Viaduct.

They hit 230-6 in their 40 overs with Phil Swift, 78, and Nigel Williams, 31, laying a solid platform at the top of the order before the McCue brothers added 95 in an unbroken seventh wicket stand.

The misery continued for St. John's when they batted as Dave Mason, 3-3, exposed their inadequacies early on.

But the real damage was done by John Barron as the seamer took 5-28 to rip out St. John's for just 49 and claim his first five wicket haul for the club.

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