SIMON Burgess, the MOBBERLEY skipper Simon Burgess knew a win was needed if his team were to fight their way out of the relegation zone.

But with visitors Warrington at the top of the table, it was never going to be easy.

Burgess won the toss and decided that his team should bat first.

With top scorer John Gibbon missing, Jim Blackburn was called up from the 2nd XI and opened with Adam Locke.

Blackburn got off to a solid start and the opening partnership of 50 helped to justify the skipper's decision to bat first.

Locke was the first to go but Caro and Blackburn continued the early progress.

But as they attempted to push the rate on wickets began to fall.

Blackburn and Caro put on 43 but Blackburn was caught for 48.

Andy Bithell - elevated to number four - tried to play a wild shot to the accurate Nunn and became Nunn's second victim.

Mobberley were now in dire straits as Tim O'Shea (13), Simon Burgess (5), David Potts (0), David Bithell (1), Trev Cooper (2) and Matt Lincoln (4), all trooped back to the pavilion.

The bowling of Nunn had been their undoing with the Warrington bowler finishing with impressive figures of 18 overs 6 for 39, all six wickets were clean bowled.

Mobberley's best hope of salvaging something from the game seemed to come from the heavens as black clouds engulfed the Church Lane ground.

The players were off the field for 20 minutes as rain poured down, but as quickly as the rain had arrived, it disappeared, and with it any chances of a drawn game.

The Warrington batsmen, aware of the impending clouds, hit out in the final overs and won the match convincingly with nine overs to spare and with the loss of only two wickets.

Next week Mobberley face Middlewich, a true relegation battle with the possibility of the losers being relegated from the County League.

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