GRAPPENHALL kept up their title push with a dominant eight-wicket victory at Marple.

Winning the toss and choosing to bowl first on a good batting wicket was soon proved to be the right decision as the Grappers’ opening bowlers of Will Metcalfe and Stan Pennington bowled excellent line and lengths and gave very little away with Stanley picking up the first two wickets to fall.

The tight bowling continued throughout the innings (apart from one over) as skipper Chris Reilly interchanged his bowlers to comply with the ECB bowling restrictions.

No matter who came into the attack, runs were hard to come by, and with excellent work in the field by everyone Grappers squeezed the life out of the Marple Batsmen.

Wickets eventually fell mid-innings with Dave Seed and Jamie Bye claiming three apiece and Metcalfe and Pennington coming back at the end to claim the final two wickets between them.

Without doubt the best bowling and fielding performance of the season from the Thirds and below-par total from the home side.

After tea Grappers set about proving the pitch to be much better to bat on than the home side showed as there was some lovely stroke play from Jamie Bye and Ben Bravington who in opening for the first time showed he has real application and aptitude with the bat.

When Bravington was out for 25 Jack Critchley came in and equally supported Jamie Bye as he passed his first 50 of the season showing some real class at times.

He fell for an excellent 64 with the game almost won, with Ben Bodha and Critchley finishing things off with some elegant shots.

So another win for the Thirds and now a real chance of the title with only four games to go.

Grappers sit 29 points behind leaders Didsbury with 100 points left to play for including a table topping clash against the league leaders in two weeks’ time.

GRAPPENHALL'S second team hosted Upton on a very wet Saturday and in difficult conditions ended up well beaten by the visitors.

Upton reached 153 for 8 in 46 overs with Mike Holden rolling back the years to claim 4 for 46 off a solid 16 overs.

Grappers never really got going with only Jamie Bye and Ben Bodha, showing class, only really offering anything of note with 24 and 25 respectively.

Grappers succumbed to 110 all out in 34.5 overs to finish with a low points total.

The result leaves Grappenhal sitting sixth in the Cheshire County Second XI Division One.