Swinton are Moor of a Side than Bury

BURY slumped to another heavy defeat when they travelled to Swinton Moorside on Saturday.

Scott Leach took the early wicket of Swinton opener Arfan Hussain but Swinton soon took command and made the Bury attack toil.

The Swinton innings was built upon a superb partnership from Garvin Roberts (79) and David Flatley (60) that yielded 126 precious runs.

Bury's attack lacked the penetration needed and Moorside racked up 240-6 in their 45 overs; Mirza taking 2-51 in his twelve overs.

In reply, Bury were soon in trouble after sliding to 36-5 in the opening overs.

Opening bowler Ryan Nurse was the destroyer-in-chief as he removed the top three; including professional Nick Kennedy for just eight.

Metcalfe (29*) and Raza (35*) provided a lively cameo at the end of the innings but Bury limped to 137-8 in 45 overs; Nurse taking 5-43.

Meanwhile, they may not be in quite the same class as the Waugh twins but the Read brothers certainly do the job for BROOKSBOTTOM.

Their partnership of 95 formed the cornerstone of Brox's imposing total of 254-6 against visiting Bickershaw.

The Summerseat outfit batted first and made a solid start through Armsbey and Richardson, with Arsmby pushing on to a well-deserved 64.

When he was dismissed, Brox were at 139-4 and were looking for an acceleration to the run-rate.

Enter James and Tommy Read...

Both players were in imperious form as they surged to half-centuries.

Tommy's score of 65 was the more measured innings compared to his big brother's belligerent knock of 76 not out, which took just 49 balls.

At the close, Brox had compiled their highest score of the summer (254-6).

Bickershaw have been struggling for runs all season and it seemed a mighty ask for the visitors to overhaul such an imposing score.

In the event, they didn't threaten the home side but there was plenty of entertainment nonetheless.

The visitors were determined to go down on the attack and they went on the offensive after a relatively quite start.

They were particularly harsh on the slow bowling of Gareth Williams and David Brown.

The latter fought back from his punishment to claim three wickets in one over.

That didn't signal a change in the Bickershaw approach, however, and the wickets fell amid a flurry of boundaries.

Brown finished with 6-43 from seven eventful overs and it was left to Williams to wrap things up as Brox completed a 144 run victory.