Skem put in a shift for the top

SKELMERSDALE recorded an important victory against Old Xaverians last weekend as they confirmed their status as Liverpool Competition Division Two title challengers.

It was a close game but Steve Maddocks and his side did enough to overcome their opponents in a battle between first and second place.

Strong performances from Danny Edwards and Ryan Maloney contributed to impressive innings with the bat and in the field and Maddocks was pleased with his side’s overall performance.

“Again, it was a very close match. It was a clash involving two teams who saw it as an important game in terms of league positions so it was a keenly fought match.

“We won the toss and elected to bowl first and we did well. Our bowlers did well to begin with and then when we brought in the spinners, Danny Edwards and Matty Fenney, we took the game away from them.

“Danny was particularly brilliant and he claimed six wickets whilst Fenney got two. They couldn’t handle either of them.”

Luke Manley and Ryan Maloney added a partnership of over 70 runs when Skem went into bat but Skem had to perform up until the last few overs to gain victory.

“When we went into bat we lost a few early wickets but Luke and Ryan were able to pull it out the bag and produce great performances.

“We still needed about 10 runs from our final pair and we ended up winning by just one run in the end. It was very close.

“It was tremendous to beat the team in second and we’ve now extended our position at the top by about 25 points which is brilliant.

“We want to keep it that way and we need to keep putting in performances like we have been doing.”

Skem face Caldy in their next fixture this Saturday and have a ‘strong’ squad available with only one player missing.