Timperley CC stalwart Martin Porthouse hit his 10,000 run for the cricket club who beat Middlewich by more than a 100 runs.

Club chairman Jurges Hasan said it was an “amazing” achievement for the 51-year-old, who was playing for the thirds but in his younger days turned out for the first team.

The recruitment company boss scored big as part of a 282 total, but it wasn’t however the top score for the ex-Altrincham Grammar School boy with fast-improving all-rounder Ben Clark pipping him to that accolade with 70.

Clark said : “It was my top score of the season so that was pleasing - and I enjoyed piling on the runs with Ports.”

Meanwhile, the roller-coaster season continues for the first XI, who surprisingly went down to a 30-run defeat in the key relegation tussle at Grappenhall.

Despite some excellent bowing from Chris Page and groom-to-be Nathan Brown, the visitors crumbled to 142 chasing a mediocre 173.

Disappointed skipper Ed Galley said: “It’s a game we should have definitely won. It was an opportunity lost, but thankfully the other results for teams at the bottom went our way. We need to carry on and pick up at least two more wins this season to ensure our safety.”

There was more gloom for the seconds who are struggling for form - and went down again, also to Grappenhall. They posted a disappointing 146 and just like the first team, the middle-order collapsed and the visitors overtook the Timperley score with nine wickets down.

Elsewhere, Timperley player Thisumi Jayawarna - also a UK-ranked chess player - underlined her potential as a cricketing star of the future when she posted 53 not out for Cheshire under-13s against Lancashire.

Meanwhile, the club’s first-team scorer, Emily Page, who is also a renowned cricketer for Cheshire, is off globe trotting this week. The sister of first-team firebrand bowler Chris, is going to South Africa as part of an international charity that helps underprivileged children achieve their potential in sport.

That experience of a lifetime for kind-hearted Page is followed a month later by a six-month working trip to Australia where she will coach young people Down Under at South Barwon Cricket Club, near Melbourne. She already has a job as a waitress and helping with the grounds lined up to supplement her earnings at the club.

She said: “I can’t wait to fly off to the southern hemisphere. It’s not that I am fed up with people at Timperley, honestly! To be fair I am not entirely convinced that we can teach the Aussies that much about cricket, but we will see.”