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Sale's (and Timperley's) fate will only be decided in the last match of the Cheshire County League season next Saturday after the local side suffered a bad defeat at the hands of league leaders Birkenhead Park. Sale actually did very well for most of the visitor's innings as they kept the scoring in check to little more than 2 runs per over. Rick Halkon again bowling excellently with a 4 wicket haul, conceding only 62 runs from an unbroken spell of 27 overs. He had the Park batsmen bemused by his leg spin and googlies and only Aussie Livermore, the league's leading scorer this season, seemed to read his wily bowling. Even he rarely took risks to hit out and try to accelerate the slow scoring but his 55 in 136 minutes was the main reason that Park reached a half-decent total of 140 for 8 off 54 overs. Rashid Jamil (2 for 33) and Mike Halkon played their part in the economic bowling display.
Sale knew that the games at home this season have yielded few high totals for the side batting second and so it turned out again as the home side struggled in their reply. Costain and Evans bowled tightly for the visitors and soon reaped rewards for their accuracy. There were also some injudicious shots played by the top order and within 12 overs the score was an alarming 20 for 5. Rob Walton hit 4 sweet boundaries but his dismissal prompted a further collapse and Sale found themselves disastrously at 35 for 8. Jamil and Rick Halkon played out 7 maidens and then lost a ninth wicket at 37. Halkon and Rob Moore in a last wicket stand of 28 showed the rest how to bat as they defended stoutly for half an hour but Costain's return saw Halkon lbw for 14 and it was all over for 65 with 8 overs left.
Sale should not get too despondent given the leading position of Park and their top scoring Aussie but they will be looking for a more rewarding game against Irby next week to endure that they survive the drop at the expense of one of the teams 4 points below them, Mobberley (who play Birkenhead) or Timperley (who play Cheadle).
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