IT was an excellent weekend for Stretford Cricket Club's first and second teams with the firsts beating Westleigh by 54 runs and the unbeaten seconds seeing off Bolton Indians firsts by three wickets.

The day began badly for the hosts batting first in Greater Manchester League Division Two at Lesley Road when they lost captain Scott Webb for five on the third ball followed by Aussie David Roberts from the next delivery.

When Danie Van Schoor was run out with the score on 16 the Stretford faithful feared the worst.

But Chris Sharp steadied the ship and first put on 52 with 14-year-old Matthew Armstrong and 55 with veteran Jason Stringer.

Sharp finally succumbed with a tired shot for an excellent 57.

With the score on 137-6 the Stretford innings was in danger of closing early.

But with partnerships of 28 between Ocean O'Malley (20) and Bradleigh Holmes (17), 22 between Holmes and Ahmad Muhammad (30) and 50 between Muhammad and Alex Grant (28 not out), the Stretford innings finished on an impressive 242.

The Westleigh reply started slowly with Stretford picking up early wickets.

Muhammad backed up his batting performance with an unbroken spell of 15 overs that returned 4-31.

He was supported by Stringer (0-20), Van Schoor (2-62) and Holmes (1-34).

Westleigh were always behind the rate and despite 80no by Aussie Toby Leeds, the innings finished on 188-7.

The second team bowled first at Bolton Indians and all the bowlers performed well with Mark Stamper (3-37), 15-year-old Ethan Page (2-13) and Mark's Dad Peter with 2-27 being the pick.

The Bolton Indians innings finished on 136-9 off their 45 overs.

The Stretford reply was steady with most of the batsmen getting a start, Matthew Laker (14), Asim Rafiq (30), Stamper (18), Sarmad Zafar (16) and Ben Riddell (18).

It was then left to two 15-year-olds, Joe Weems (19) and Page (nine) to take  Stretford to victory.

This weekend, the firsts travel to Edenfield and the seconds are home to Greenfield thirds.