ASHTON on Mersey fell agonisingly short of pulling off a remarkable Cheshire Cricket League Division One victory on a wet day at Poynton.

Put into bat, Ashton’s innings had hardly started before rain interrupted the day.

After a couple of false starts and an early tea, Ashton went for the runs in an attempt to set a tempting target.

Hard-hitting Alex O’Gara (41) set the tone with Tom Scott (32) keeping up the attack.

The splendid James Williams finished with figures of 4-29 as wickets fell in the pursuit of quick runs.

Ashton finally declared on 123-7 to leave Poynton 32 overs to score 124 for victory.

In response, Poynton seemed to have little appetite for the chase as they struggled to come to terms with the seam of Andy Roscow, Jamie Wilmshurst and Dan Higgins.

Poynton seemed to be on their way to killing off Ashton’s hopes of victory until the introduction of spinner Mike Roberts. The Poynton batting collapsed as Roberts worked his way through the line-up to reduce the home side to 77-8.

As the gloom descended Ashton were denied the opportunity to bring back their pace attack and while the excellent Roberts took another wicket in the final over, the last pair held out to finish on 84-9 and deny Ashton victory.

Roberts finished with 7-33, the second time in three weeks an Ashton bowler has taken seven wickets in an innings.

Ashton will be looking for better fortune when they visit Disley on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the second team fell to a heavy defeat to Bollington at The Beets.

Ashton were 123 all out (Steve Dalton 5-30) before Bollington reached 127-1 (Matt Dawson 66 not out).