Timperley Cricket Club’s first team found the going tough in their opening game of their rain-hit season - going down to a heavy defeat at Nantwich.

Captain Ed Galley admitted it was a comfortable win for the hosts after Timperley were put in to bat and were all out for 138.

The skipper said: “It was slightly slow out there and after the openers initially made quite a solid start, the wickets started to tumble.

“This was down to a combination of some poor batting, decision-making with not adjusting to outdoor conditions from winter nets, and some good disciplined bowling from Nantwich.”

Galley explained this led to Timperley being reduced to 92-9, however, a great last-wicket partnership by in-form Callum Yates and Jonathon Fowler proved to the other batsmen how it was done - and got his team up to a respectable score of 138.

Galley went on: “This gave our bowlers a good chance to win the game.

“Nathan Brown took an absolute screamer of a catch at second slip to start off our bowling innings well with a wicket in the first over, closely followed by another to leave Nantwich struggling to a degree at 20-2.

“This gave us a real sniff and belief we could bowl out Nantwich and cause a bit of an upset. However, their top batsman, Luke Robinson, proved he’s one of the best and most destructive batsmen in the league and started to take the game quickly away from us with some very clean striking to make 80 runs at quicker than a run-a-ball taking apart all of the Timperley attack, whacking anything slightly loose.

“Even though it was on the scorecard a very one-sided game, the boys shouldn’t be too disheartened as this was a game against one of the best bowling attacks in the league as well as a batsman, in Robinson, who had an excellent knock.

“Had we managed to get his wicket early then the day could have been very different for us and we would have certainly fancied taking 10 wickets against their batting line up.”

Next up, Timperley first team are at home against big local rivals Bowdon on Saturday, while the table-topping second team are at Didsbury.