Hindley St. Peter’s 1st XI recovered from a low total to pull off a 22-run win over Monton at home.

Put in to bat by the visitors, HSP found scoring difficult and the runs only came slowly at first, a couple of early wickets putting them on the back foot at 11-2. Umar Shaikh and Shoaib Khan stabilised the innings with a partnership that lasted ten overs but only yielded 19 runs as the rate struggled to get above two an over. After Shoaib was out Mark Wood, fresh from his century last week, added some much-needed impetus to the innings but wickets then began to fall again at the other end. Shaikh’s 51-ball vigil ended when he was stumped for 14 and then another four batsmen followed, including Wood himself as he sought out the long on boundary but failed to reach it and was caught for 26 from 27 balls, the highest score of the innings. HSP were now 69-8 and back in trouble and, although James Hart added some valuable runs in the lower order, the final total of 85 all out looked very light.

HSP had to believe that Monton would find batting as difficult as they had, and the home side got off to the start they would have wished for as Wood had Monton opener Ben Keane-Hailey caught down the leg side in the first over. Wood struck again with an LBW in his next over to leave the visitors two down without a run on the board. With James Hart opening with four successive maidens at the other end, Monton found runs even harder to come by than HSP, and they limped to 15-4 in the first 11 overs. Only Paul Karunagaran in the middle order for Monton offered any resistance at all, and not only that but for a time it looked as though he may carry his team home single-handedly. Karunagaran hit 36 from 40 balls as Monton gradually came within touching distance of their target, but HSP held their nerve. Umar Shaikh took over from Hart, picked up a wicket with his very first ball and went on to bowl two consecutive wicket maidens. The big wicket of Karunagaran came in Shaikh’s third over to leave Monton 63-9, Wood finishing things off just a few balls later to seal the victory for HSP. Wood finished with 6-33 from 12.1 overs while Shaikh ended with 3-4 from three overs.

The 2nd XI made the short journey to Westleigh and raced to an eight-wicket victory. Westleigh opted to bat first and started strongly with 68 for the first wicket, but the momentum swung completely the other way once HSP skipper Mark Hardman brought himself into the attack. Hardman broke the opening stand by removing Danny Galvin for 40 before Noman Khalid then took the second wicket on the same score. From then on though it was basically all Hardman as he ran through the Westleigh order to finish with figures of 7-35 from 14 overs. Westleigh lost their last four wickets for just two runs as they were bowled out for 127.

The fast-scoring HSP batsmen made short work of their target, Noman Khalid leading the way with 66* from 60 balls, his opening partner Sabhat Zahid hitting 21 from 15 and Waqar Ali a relatively pedestrian 28 from 32 as HSP needed just 19 overs to reach 129-2 and take the points.

Next Saturday brings a top of the table clash to Hindley as second-placed HSP 1st XI take on league leaders Flixton. The 2nd XI are away to Whalley Range.