IT was an excellent weekend for Stretford's first and second teams as they both defeated table toppers Denton.

The first team chased down 167 with the usual wobble in the middle, winning by two wickets, while the second team bowled Denton out for 73 and clinched a five-wicket wicket.

At home in the firsts' Greater Manchester Cricket League Division Two clash, Denton started strongly as the extras built up.

And at 111-1 in the 29th over a score topping 200 was on the cards.

But Stretford skipper Danie Van Schoor started to take wickets as Ahmad Muhammad bowled his usual miserly spell with 0-38 from 15 overs.

The excellent Stretford fielding led a great team effort to restrict Denton to 167 all out in the 50th over.

Brad Holmes again bowled a tidy spell of 1-25 from 9.2 overs and the evergreen Chris Barlow pitched in with 1-10 from three overs. Van Schoor was the pick of the bowlers with 5-60 from his 15 overs.

Chris Sharp (10) and Brad Holmes (18) both got starts and built the Stretford reply alongside opener Adrian Holmes.

Aussie David Roberts then took the attack to Denton scoring 43 in 38 balls before falling to the final ball of Neill's spell.

This left Stretford in a good position at 120-4 with plenty of overs left, but after losing three wickets for only 17 runs the game was back in Denton's hands.

However, a sensible 12 from Barlow, supporting Adrian Holmes (42 not out) almost saw Stretford home, with Barlow out just before the victory came.

The result leaves Stretford in third, with the four promotion places looking very tight indeed.

The second team travelled to Denton with left-arm pace man Benji Evans blowing away the early batting, taking the first four wickets.

He was ably assisted by Daud Muhammad who bowled seven overs for only 13.

With the introduction of Asim Rafiq (5-16) wickets continued to fall as he and Evans (5-20) bowled Denton out for 73.

The Stretford reply could not have started any worst as Matthew Laker was caught out first ball.

At 27-1 it looked like the ship had been steadied, but Stretford again lost quick wickets to slip to 48-5.

However. number three Ocean O'Malley (34) batted steadily and was joined by captain Ben Riddell (13) who took Stretford to victory.

Last Friday evening saw the Stretford Spitfires go out of the ECB under-19s' knockout at the quarter-final stage, losing by six wickets with only one ball to go to Read raiders.

On Sunday, the fourth XI lost by 15 runs to league leaders South West Manchester despite 50 from Usman Hassan and 39 from captain Tom Syddall.

This weekend, the first team travel to Westleigh, while the second team are at home to Bolton Indians first team.

On Sunday, the fourths host Wythenshawe and the third XI are away at Monton and Weaste.