Lytham 226 all out. New Brighton 208 all out
 
Lytham bounced back from defeat in the National KO to record a pulsating victory over second placed New Brighton at Church Road on Saturday.
 
New Brighton won the toss & invited Lytham to bat. Lytham built their innings steadily despite the early loss of Antony Mulligan for 9. Simon Long (29) timed the ball sweetly & Guy Roberts continued his rich vein of form by recording yet another well compiled half century. Skipper Jimmy Wisniewski also past the half century mark, showing more restraint than normal. With a potentially large total looming, Lytham then lost Lee Hilton for 8, Nick Knight for 4 & Lewis Dingle no score.
 
Not for the first time this season, Lytham fought back with Rob Dingle again showing just how much he has improved over the last two seasons. He steered his team towards maximun batting points, being particulary severe on New Zealander Jessie Ryder, before the latter extracted revenge by bowling him for 36. Nine, ten & jack then wrapped up the batting points, with Lytham recording a creditable 226 all out in exactly 55 overs.
 
New Brightons reply began briskly with White & Thompson both looking compact in technique as well as stealing quick singles. However, Michael Rigby was first to strike removing White LBW for 7 & not long after, Marcus Sharp disposed of Thompson for 9. Jessie Ryder then settled to his task, effortlessly stroking balls to all parts of the ground. Lewis Dingle put in some hard yards with seven overs bowled mainly against the New Zealander, until ultimately claiming some reward by removing his partner Hale for 17. Ryder continued to dominate & Mark Evans grew in stature as he & the New Zealander put together a stand of 75.
 
As the game swung towards New Brighton, the crowd got what it had been waiting for when Jimmy Wisniewski entered the attack. In his second over, he induced a mistake from Ryder & Rob Dingle hung on to a skyer at long off. Ryders score of 86 came in just 69 balls & contained 13 boundaries. Evans was then joined by Dave White & New Brighton continued to chase the runs. When the last hour commenced, Lytham still required 7 wickets for victory & New Brighton looked firm favourites. However, as so often happens, the last hour took on the form of a match within a match. A change of ends for Marcus Sharp induced Evans to chip a leading edge to Nick Knight & his run a ball innings of 60 came to an end. Wisniewski took himself off after just 3 overs & introduced Rob Dingle to the attack. Together with a rejuvenated Sharp, the pair cleaned up the last 5 wickets hitting the stumps twice & claiming 3 LBWs as the visitors brave effort was ended at 208.
 
This dramatic, morale boosting transformation, was again brought about by Lythams never say die attitude. Maximum points puts them alond side 3 other teams,as they now sit just one victory away from top spot. Lythams policy of promoting local youngsters into the first X1 & not letting them hide behind an overseas player is begining to reap rich rewards. Jimmy described the manner of victory as "utterly amazing." "I could not be more proud of my team even if I wanted to be"he added.