METHODISTS went down by three wickets away to top of the table Stapleton Thirds

Opting to bat first in sunny conditions, the visitors found the early going difficult - the accurate bowling of Stapleton's young all-rounder Louix Birkinshaw (3-19) and Imran Akbar on the bouncy wicket making runs hard to come by.

After Will Holland's (2-23) dismissal of skipper Alex Nash, the Methodists - now 33-3 - were in need of a decent partnership, and Iain Locke (50) and James Green (55) were able to deliver one. Their 126 runs in 25 overs saw the Methodists posting a competitive final score of 180-8 at tea.

Unfortunately, during the break the showery rain arrived. This made things trickier for the fielding side but, even so, they began well - Stapleton's start mirroring their own, as some tidy bowling reduced them to 33-3 in the tenth over. Good work from the next few batters - Will Millard (28), Hammad Ahmad (27) and Imran Akbar (19) - saw the score past the hundred, until all were eventually undone by Green's (3-33) slow bowling.

But, once again, it was man-of-the-match Birkinshaw - with 44 from 35 balls - who then snatched the potential victory from the visitors' grasp. Arriving at 107-6 he turned the tide and taking the home side to victory.