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WIDNES Cricket Club cruised to a comfortable five wicket victory in an impressive start to the new season.

New captain Sean Higgins could be well pleased with his first league match as captain as there were no negative aspects of the sides performance to dwell upon.

Initially, Macclesfield's opening pair batted well in reaching 61-0, but then Widnes' new Australian import Jeff Sullivan struck a crucial blow by removing Reed, lbw.

This success was swiftly followed by another as young James Ireland clean bowled the other opener, Moore, who had batted well for 42, with a beautiful inswinger.

It was at this time that the spin twins, Trevor Myatt and Sean Higgins began to apply the pressure upon the Macclesfield batsmen, by restricting the flow of runs.

In tandem, they bowled 30 overs and constantly threatened the bewildered opposition batsmen, who failed to reach 200.

Widnes slipped to 31-2, chasing the target of 189 as both openers were dispatched back to the pavilion during a good opening spell by the Macclesfield spinner, Moores.

However, this only brought Richard Hignett and Jeff Sullivan to the crease who absolutely pulverised the opposition attack in a brilliant display of aggressive batting.

The highlight of their 122 run partnership came when, between them, they plundered 24 off one over from the Macclesfield opening bowler, Clark, including an imperious six over the pavilion by Hignett.

Eventually, Hignett fell for 75 from just 72 balls and Sullivan soon followed for 55 scored from 66 balls, with all the evidence seeming to suggest that he will turn out to be an excellent acquisition for Widnes.

Another debutante, Tony Hurdley, fell, trying to smite the winning runs and it was left to stalwarts Richard Evans and Steve Meredith to see Widnes home.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.