AFTER recent disappointing results there was a welcome return to form for Leigh CC in both their weekend games at Beech Walk.

They completely outplayed an in form Northern side to win by a massive 132-run margin and ran up a huge total in their Lancashire Cup match against Rainhill to set up another comfortable victory.

Against Northern, Steve Mullaney celebrated his selection for the England Under 17s side by scoring an aggressive 31 out of 41 for the first wicket. His opening partner skipper Dave Dove has played himself into top form and he dominated proceedings after a slow start until he was fourth out with the score on 186. He was assisted by Tim Rees (14) and Gareth Cross (22) as he struck 13 boundaries in a two hour innings which brought him 76 runs.

Neil Williams, with only a handful of 1st XI league appearances behind him, revelled in his promotion to number five in the batting order and showed great confidence and superb technique as he scored an undefeated half century off only 42 balls. His unbroken partnership with Liam Zammit produced 53 runs off 6 overs with Zammit racing to 38 off 23 balls.

Leigh declared immediately after Williams had reached 50 having scored 239 for 4 off 52.3 overs. Northern had tried eight different bowlers in an attempt to stop the rot, but it was all to no avail.

The visitors were soon in trouble as Greg Jennings trapped New Zealander James Marshall lbw for 6 and Parry was caught behind off Ronnie Davis for 2. Cole (34) and Hey then took the score to 64 but it was downhill all the way after Vallance had dismissed Hey lbw for 11.

The visitors collapsed against good bowling by Leigh's spinners and they were all out for 107. Zammit finished with 4 for 18 off 14 overs and Chris Melia took 3 for 13 to earn their side a morale-boosting win.

Rainhill, who are champions of the Merseyside and Southport Alliance which is the Liverpool Competiton's feeder league, managed to contain Leigh to 109 for 2 off 28 overs (Mullaney 48) with Massey succeeding in tying the batsmen down as he took 1 for 13 off his 9 over stint.

The batsmen then moved into top gear with Dove again completely dominant in scoring 78 and Cross punishing every bad ball to score 41.

But the best was yet to come as Zammit hit the ball with awesome power to score an incredible 70 off just 29 balls in 25 minutes failing to score off only five of the balls he faced. He hit 5 massive sixes and 6 fours to leave the bowlers completely demoralised and help Leigh to 279 for 7 off 45 overs.

Rainhill's top order batsmen had no answer to this and at 69 for 5 in the 19th over their remote chance of victory had disappeared. Rotherham (37) and Sparkes fought back well to take the score to 115 before the next wicket fell.

Leigh's bowling was under strength because of injuries to Vallance and Davis and this allowed the batsmen to take advantage of the perfect conditions as Leigh tried eight different bowlers in all. Sparkes (69) and number 9 batsman Harvey (42 not out) helped take the total to 206 all out. Zammit rounded off a highly successful weekend by taking 2 for 26 off 9 overs.

Leigh's next match is away at newly promoted Southport and Birkdale who have already made a big impression on their return to the Premier Division.