Liverpool claim title depite yet more Hayden heroics

AFTER a season in which they have dominated the third tier of the Liverpool Competition, winning 15 of their 21 games and losing just one, Liverpool were finally crowned Second Division champions on Saturday evening when they completed their sevenwicket defeat of Southport Trinity at The Rookery.

But Matt Jackson’s team still became the latest side to suffer the attentions of the Trinity opener, Hayden McCrae, whose 101 was his sixth century of the league season and took his aggregate to 1,261 runs in 21 innings.

McCrae put on 142 for the first wicket with Tony Campbell but the wheels fell off Trinity’s innings very quickly after that stand had been broken.

Geoff Thornton’s team lost all their wickets for a further 26 runs and were dismissed for 168, left-arm spinner Peter Kelly returning figures of 6-56.

Henry Charlton then made 81 and Sam Holliday added 65 as Liverpool encountered few problems reaching their target for the loss of three wickets.

In the other match to reach a conclusion last Saturday, Prescot & Odyssey tied a remarkable match with St Helens Recs.

But that result confirmed the relegation of the Burrows Lane team after just one season in the Liverpool Gin Liverpool & District Cricket Competition.

Dean Fairclough took 4-41 and Rob Magee snapped up 3-29 to dismiss the home side for 118 but St Helens’s Liam Gaskell hit back with 5-45 as P&O struggled towards their goal, finally finishing one run short of victory with Phil Kirk on 28 not out.

Three games, including the promotion clash between Wavertree and Spring View, were abandoned without a ball bowled. The other matches which saw no action at all were Northop Hall’s home game against Parkfield Liscard and Alder’s visit to Old Xaverians.