SECOND DIVISION

MAGHULL seamer, Tony Molloy, son of the renowned ex-Bootle batsman “Arkle” Molloy, enjoyed a triumph his father could not match on Saturday when he became one of the very few Liverpool Gin Liverpool Competition cricketers to take all ten wickets in an innings.

Molloy’s achievement and his analysis - 16.4-540-10 - will no doubt soon be preserved in a number of ways with the ball mounted and the scorecard framed but what mattered most over the weekend was that his outstanding bowling took his team to an excellent 13-run victory over Prescot and Odyssey at Old Hall Field.

That was tough enough given that P&O’s pursuit of 205 to win had been held together by Peter Crookes, who made 125 off 105 balls with 14 fours and seven sixes before becoming Molloy’s seventh victim. Earlier Cam Lawrenson had made 65 in Maghull’s 204 all out.

However, the top two places in the Second Division table are occupied by teams outside Merseyside. Sean Brooks’s 80 was enough to steer leaders Spring View to a 28-run win over Old Xaverians for whom Steven Irwin made a gutsy 71 not out while Jamie Griffiths’s unbeaten 88 and Danny Clubbe’s 7-50 allowed Northop Hall to clinch a 34-run victory over St Helens Town.

But the top five clubs are covered by just 19 points and Wavetree took third spot when they defeated Southport Trinity by 58 runs at Sandown Lane.

Fifties for Darren Collin and Chris Heath took the home side to 233-6 declared at tea and Stewart Guy’s 7-29 did the hard work in dismissing Trinity for 175, although Hayden McCrae did his best to disrupt the game’s direction of travel with 66.

As expected Liverpool are also well in contention and Matt Jackson’s team enjoyed a convincing 77-run victory over Parkfield Liscard at Pemberton’s Meadow on Saturday.

Chris Tongue’s 79 not out was the biggest contribution to the visitors’ 164-6 declared.