GRAPPENHALL seconds won by eight wickets at relegation-threatened Congleton on Saturday.

Skipper Paul Tyerman won the toss and put the home side into bat on a patchy wicket.

Grappenhall got off to a good start with the ball and never looked back.

Arran McCabe and Stan Pennington picked up early wickets and continued to pile on the pressure.

Only the occasional short ball allowed the Congleton batsmen to score freely.

Josh Hayes and Ben Cagna came into the attack after 14 overs and Grappers applied the pressure as Cagna picked up two wickets in three balls.

Hayes bowled well for his spell while veteran Cagna wiled away at the other end for a long stint in the hot sunshine to pick up two and three wickets respectively.

The innings was finished when the final wickets were taken by McCabe and Pennington finishing things off, as Congleton were bowled out for 128 in 40 overs.

Grappers set about their run chase with McCabe and Tom Hulme opening up.

McCabe went early and runs were hard to come by on a difficult wicket, but when Ben Bodha joined Hulme the pair pinched singles and worked the ball round effortlessly to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

The pair took the game away from Congleton without any real scares until Bodha was dubiously out LBW on 49.

Hulme finished things off with a six to close on 60 not out as Grappers knocked off the total only two down with 30 overs of the game to spare.

Grappenhall seconds visited Stockport on Sunday.

There is something about this fixture as earlier in the season there was almost 500 runs scored in 90 overs with a special innings from one side.

That time Grappers won with a couple of balls to spare.

This weekend there were remarkable similarities but unfortunately Grappers couldn’t just get across the winning line this time.

Stockport scored 251 in their 45 overs with a fantastic innings of 149 not out by Nasib Ullah, although a couple of chances were given and not taken.

The bowlers struggled and toiled in hot conditions and did themselves credit as things could have been worse at one point.

Set a daunting target to keep their title hopes alive, Grappers got off to a good start with 14-year-old Arthur Pennington and 16-year-old Ben Bravington opening the batting, looking comfortable throughout their innings and scoring freely.

Up with the run rate when Bravington went for 44, the two youngsters had built a solid platform for the push.

Jack Critchley came in and found scoring difficult and things slowed down a little, and when Pennington was out for another 50, it was time to rebuild.

Ben Bodha came in to join Critchley and the pair of them started to work the ball around and pick off singles for fun before Bodha started to stroke the ball to the boundary with ease.

Scoring the bulk of the runs, his 50 came up in quick time while Critchley worked away at the other end.

With the run rate now up at around eight an over the pair kept on course, but that one big over to ease the pressure never came so it was eight or nine an over needed all the way in.

When Critchley was caught for 40 with around 20 runs to win off two overs things looked difficult.

Bodha did everything he could but just couldn’t find the boundary and the innings closed out seven runs short of victory on 245 for 4.

Bodha finished on 92 not out after an excellent composed innings from the 18-year-old.