Alderley Edge First XI suffered a 4-wicket loss on Saturday at Moss Lane with neighbours Toft chasing down a stiff target of 270 after the visitors won the toss and chose to bowl first.
Captain Sam Perry set the early pace for Alderley hitting 56 opening the batting adding 123 with Subhaan Mahmood for the second wicket before the returning George Bell hit a spritely 37 from 28 balls to take the hosts past 200.
Mahmood continued his recent purple patch with the bat in adding 77 to keep the momentum into the second half of Alderley's innings despite a burst of wickets for Tom Forster (4-75 off 15 overs) curtailing things slightly before Alderley's Kiwi James Naylor struck 24 from just 13 balls to allow Perry to declare after 50 overs giving Alderley an extra 5 overs to try and bowl out their opponents.
Andrew Windle got Alderley started by removing opposition skipper Phil Raikes for 15 with the score on 37 but after riding his luck early with a number of boundaries off the inside edge, opener Jimmy O'Sullivan marshalled the Toft innings to 210 for 4 before falling to Dan Fesmer's trickery with the ball, departing four short of a century.
Charlie Barnard was the leading light amongst the Alderley attack claiming 3-56 off 17 overs to keep the home side in contention but a partnership of exactly 50 between Rohan Fernando (25 not out) and Ewan Williams (22 not out) proved enough to take the visitors over the line in the 55th over of their reply to take 25 points to Alderley's 10.
In Second Team action, despite further availability issues for captain Andrew Kennedy Alderley's second string managed to rack up a strong total away at Widnes after being asked to bat first. 30 from opener Alan Day set the visitors off on the right foot with number 3 Henry Stevinson continuing his strong form with the willow in notching 85 from 110 balls to form the backbone of Alderley's innings before a breezy 36 from Ben Lambert helped the away team reach 236-8 off their 50 overs.
An opening partnership of 65 helped Widnes off to a strong start before Alderley fought back with the ball to reduce the hosts to 76-3 in the early pat of the second innings. A partnership of 123 for the fourth wicket between Joe McCurdy (60) and Ben Hewitt (59 not out) proved decisive in steering the hosts out of trouble before Attaul Hayee applied the finishing touches with 29 not out to see the hosts home with 5 wickets in hand. George Valentine claimed 3-83 and Alan Day 2-89 for Alderley as the visitors claimed 10 points from a spirited performance despite the loss.
On Sunday a loss for Alderley's Third XI made it a clean sweep of defeats for the weekend, falling to Stockport Georgians by 5 wickets. After being asked to bat first Alderley opener Andrew Kennedy struck 92 out of the hosts 169-7 with Muzz Ishaq taking 4-27 for Georgians.
Opener Saj Hussain's knock of 88 from just 45 balls set Georgians the platform they needed in the early part of their reply before 35 not out from captain Carlos Wakefield saw the visitors home in just over 15 overs, Alfie Usher taking 3-38 and Charlie Boddy 2-17 as the pick of Alderley's bowlers.
Match report by Andrew Windle.
