BOWDON Cricket Clubs 1st XI stormed to their thirteenth victory of the season at Parkgate on Saturday, beating Neston by 111 runs to pocket yet another 25 points in their bid for the 2000 Championship of the Murray Smith Cheshire County League ECB Premiership.

Lingering in second place for most of the first half of the seaosn, Bowdon are now showing their thoroughbred class, with a searing sprint of seven straight victories which has left present champions Macclesfield stumbling 40 points behind, with only three matches remianing.

Neston put Bowdon in to bat on a good wicket and Nathan Wood and Anthony Crozier gave them a solid start with 96 run partnership in even time.

Wood contributed 39 but following his departure the scoring became bogged down and after 40 overs the total was only 132 for 3 wickets.

At this point the whole momentum of Bowdons innings changed from cruise-control to overdrive.

Paul Gould is currently in vintage form and he and Crozier so laid their bats at the now tiring Neston bowlers that 116 runs came from the partnership.

This was the Bowdon batting machine at its most commanding and the home team wilted under the high class assault.

Gould made 51 not out (3 fours) of the undefeated fourth wicket partnership of 119 scored in just 50 minutes, while Croziers scintillating 139 not out (3 hours, with 2 sixes and 13 fours) was his best ever score for Bowdon and the highest by any XI player this seaosn.

Skipper Steve Bramhall declared with the Bowdon total on 248 for 3 after 55 overs, giving Nesotn the same number of overs to make their expected challenge.

But it soon became clear that the home team had no ambition for victory as the shutters were up almost from the start of their reply.

This posed a problem for Bowdon, weakened by the absence of two front line bowlers, but it was the moment for Bramhall to exercise his blossoming captaincy skills.

He switched the bowling attack astutely and nearly every change produced a wicket.

One key move was to bring on Andy Griffin whose occasional leg-break bowling is effectively an open invitation to the batsmen to hit out.

As many as 32 runs (2 sixes and 5 fours) came from his first ten deliveries as the spectators were ducking for cover.

Bit it worked.

Firstly Wood raced 20 yards to take a superb running catch at long on, and two balls later Matthew Bradshaw clung on to a ferocious low drive at mid-off.

With Neston now on 120 for 8 Bowdon could scent victory, but stoic resistance by the tail-enders to a bombardment from Richard Green kept the visitors at bay for the next ten overs.

With only three overs to go it looked as if Neston would achieve the draw that seemed to be the summit of their aims.

One last big effort from Green and Bradshaw saw the last two wickets fall in consecutive balls, leaving Neston 137 all out and giving Bowdon a timely victory.

Cross had the best bowling figures, with 3 for 12 from 13 overs, but this victory was an all-round effort with key support from Green (2 for 46), teenager Bradshaw (2 for 7), Dominic Ball (1 for 26) and Griffin (2 for 39).