ST HELENS bowler Gary Sheppard shot out the top seven Huyton batsmen for 25 runs finishing with a career best 7-43.

With the other pace bowlers Bobby Kenny (1-33) and Ian Mackus (1-11) taking the crumbs that Gary left the spinners for once were left in the cold.

Huyton thought that 155-9 was a defendable total but it was not to be.

Openers Phil Roughley (23) and Darren Tyms (79 not out) gave St Helens a great start and despite losing Roger Burrows and Bappa Mukherjee cheaply, Ian Mackus finished the game with two fours and a six to finish with 39 not out.

St Helens remain third in the table and this week's match against second placed Lytham should be a cracker.

Not to be outdone the second team beat Huyton at Windleshaw Road. St Helens batted first and posted a score of 216 for 6 declared thanks to excellent batting by Craig Horabin (67) Ian Lawless (69) Baz Jordan (23) and David Massey (27).

Huyton made a brave effort but fell to 186 all out with the bowling honours belonging to Ian Davies who rolled back the years to bowl 17 overs to take 7-77.

Unfortunately the Third team failed to make it a clean sweep and went down to Newton-le-Willows away. St Helens managed only 122 all out in 33 overs with Ali Cadel (51) and Gareth Davies (27) the main contributors. Newton had no trouble in knocking off the runs for the loss of one wicket in 19 overs.

This weekend the First team are at home on both Saturday and Sunday. The crucial match against Lytham, sponsored by R A Brewer, will be followed on Sunday by a visit from Bolton who may include former St Helens captain Geoff Cropper in their team.

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