A six-wicket haul for seamer Ed Foster was the highlight of a crushing win for Alderley Edge First XI on Saturday as Moss Lane as Sam Perry's side's recent good form in the league continued with a 133-run demolition of Oxton.
Winning the toss, Alderley elected to bat first with the threat of rain around and made a solid start in reaching 61-3 on a pitch offering help to the new ball bowlers, 24 from Subhaan Mahmood helping to keep the scoreboard moving in the early stages.
A well made 64 from Pat Ashling knitted things together through the middle overs as Oxton put their spinners to work to try and control the run rate but a quickfire 46 from 37 balls from number 7 Chris Sanders broke the shackles for Alderley as he and Ashling added 62 for the 6th wicket.
The partnership laid the platform for the lower order to continue to pile on the runs with Alderley eventually dismissed for 218 with two balls of the innings remaining. Chris Stenhouse finished with 3-58 as the pick of the Oxton attack with Jordan Collier and Alistair Crick each claiming two wickets in support.
In the second innings the visitors made it to 32 before the loss of their first wicket but that was to be the only real bright spot of Oxton's reply as Alderley's attack never let them get a foothold in the contest.
Foster took the first three wickets to fall with Cheshire's Harry Dearden, bowled for 22, and the key scalp of Leicestershire's Lewis Hill, trapped lbw for just 2, inflicting huge damage in the opening 8 overs. When George Valentine claimed skipper Henry Dobson, caught behind for 4, Oxton had fallen to 52-4.
Foster switched ends to claim another two wickets with Chris Sanders claiming two for himself (2 for 9 off 3 overs) as the lower middle order were quickly swept away before Foster applied the finishing touches to the 24-point win, trapping number 11 Alistair Crick lbw to claim his sixth victim and cap a fine bowling display from the hosts who took the last 6 Oxton wickets for just 33 runs.
Alderley's Second XI made it a double-victory weekend for the club as they registered a crucial win by 5-wickets at Marple. The hosts won the toss and elected to bat first with number 3 James Crisall hitting an unbeaten 110 and opener Dan Cox notching 73 to provid the lion's share of Marple's total of 222-6 from their 50 overs, a spell of 3 wickets for 59 runs from David Johnson was the pick of the Alderley bowling.
An opening partnership of 88 between skipper Andy Kennedy and Alan Day set Alderley on their way before Kennedy was dismissed for 33. Day followed soon after for 57 with Marple battling back to restrict Alderley to 119-3 but another knock of 57, this time from number 3 Jon Steele, helped to break the back of the chase and with quickfire contributions from Calum Wilson (27 runs from 27 balls) and Ashray Bhamidipati (30 from 20 balls) in the middle order Alderley made it to their target with four and half overs to spare to claim a 20-point victory.
