THERE were jubilant scenes at Lesley Road as Stretford's first team confirmed their promotion to Division One of the Greater Manchester Cricket League with a victory over local rivals South West Manchester.

And the seconds made it a double celebration after they defeated Friends United at Alexandra Park to become champions of Division Five East.

In the first XI clash, South West batted first and after an early breakthrough by Benji Evans, Munir Khan, formerly of Stretford, scored a fine 48, despite the miserly Ahmad Muhammad taking 1-28 in his 15 overs.

Captain Danie Van Schoor (4-62) bowled in tandem with Brad Holmes (3-52) keeping South West to a final total of 171-9.

Stretford started steadily, but Adrian Holmes was lbw for nine and a lively Chris Sharp innings was cut short at 17.

Australian David Roberts and Brad Holmes came together at 39 and took the score to 147-2 when Roberts was unluckily adjudged lbw for a hard-hitting 69.

This lead to an all-too-familiar wobble, with Holmes out for a hard-fought 35, and three wickets then fell quickly.

With seven wickets down, and the ship steadied by veteran Wasim Zafar, 16-year-old Matthew Laker hit the winning four with seven overs remaining.

The second team played a shortened game of 39 overs per side, due to water on the outfield, against third-placed Friends United.

Bowling first Stretford picked up early wickets through 14-year-old Kamran Hussain (2-24) and Peter Stamper (1-22).

Friends rallied and scored quickly but with the bowling of Ethan Page (1-37), Mark Stamper (3-20) and Joe Weems (2-14), the innings finished after 26 overs on 126.

Stretford scored steadily but equally lost wickets.

Thirteen-year-old George Bell (39) and 15-year-old Thomas Coulson batted well after a couple of early wickets.

Then it was left to Mark Stamper (30 not out) and 15-year-old Joe Weems (19) to take the team to a well-deserved four-wicket victory.

The fourth team defeated Ashton Ladysmith by five wickets on Sunday.

With the wickets shared, Ashton scored 151 and Stretford had a minor wobble but half-centuries from Ben Riddell

and Usman Hussain saw them home.

Meanwhile, Kamran Hussain bowled a miserly opening spell of  6-4-0-7 for the Greater Manchester Cricket League's  Under-14s as they won the Lancashire inter-league final.

This weekend the third and fourth teams have games on both Saturday and Sunday.