WITH figures of 11/37, the man of the weekend, without doubt, has to be, the 'Duke', Phil Spencer for Stretford, although there were other contenders.

His unorthodox off-breaks meant Winton and Earlestown set off on the wrong foot on Saturday and Sunday and were both beaten in outstanding fashion in contrasting games.

Whilst Spencer was busy bowling out Winton's 2nd XI at home, the 1stXI played in the reverse fixture on Saturday.

Stretford batted first on a wet pitch and were bowled out cheaply for 110 with Craig Burke (19), Gaurav Sharma (14) and Ian Kirk (14) all getting starts but not continuing.

The damage was done by the 'rev' P Huddleston (8/55) whose amazing accuracy parted the Stretford order.

Naz Khan (31) and A Bhan (22) sealed victory, on a drying pitch, by 6 wickets and the innings finished on 114/4.

When John Foulkes (56*) pushed the ball through mid-wicket off the final ball for the required run Stretford 2ndXI collected a 3 wicket victory, three wins in three games and another valuable 20 points on Saturday.

In trouble at 64/5, Stretford pair Foulkes and the ever improving U15 skipper Jack Casey (49) put on 80 for the 6th wicket to set up a thrilling finish.

After hitting a towering six over mid-wicket Casey departed trying to repeat the dose with 46 still needed.

Gordon Agnew (11) and Foulkes added 39 in quick time and Agnew departed in the last over when he sacrificed his wicket giving Foulkes the strike.

Foulkes reached a deserved half-century with a six over cover and this set up the victorious last ball finish.

Earlier Winton faltered from 100/0 to 185 all out thanks to Phil Spencer's amazing spell of 5/17.

The main run scores for Winton were N Jones (50) and D Dartwell (39) but thanks to heroes Foulkes, Casey and Spencer the match went down to the wire.

Spencer was also at it on Sunday for the 3rdXI away at Earlestown in a 56 run victory.

Stretford batted first on a cabbage patch pitch and were dismissed for a batting 95 with John Foulkes carrying on his good form with 22.

The hosts reply was like a game of blindfold cricket.

Stretford's bowling was to good for Earlestown and Phil Spencer had another big haul, taking six wickets for thirty-six runs.

Even if Stretford had allowed Earlestown to put a bell in the ball they may have struggled for about 20 more runs but instead they toiled and were bowled out for a disastrous 40 with a set of binary scores that Bill Gates would have been proud of.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.