IT took high-flying Bowdon to end Winnington Park's impressive run in the Fred Graham Trophy on Sunday.

Bowdon, who are 35 points clear at the top of the Murray Smith Premier League, admitted that they under-estimated the talent of Winnington when they played them at home earlier on in the season and insisted that this quarter-final game should be played this week due to county games in the forthcoming weeks.

This enabled Cheshire players Neil Cross, John Gray and Steve Bramhall to play, as well as Lancashire contracted players Richard Green and Nathan Wood.

Winnington lost the toss and were asked to bat on a good batting track. Park found it difficult to score runs quickly against a quality attack, but scored at four per over throughout.

With three first-teamers unavailable, second teamer Simon Newell took the chance to stake a claim for a regular first team place with a magnificent 60 not out.

He was well supported by Adam Parkinson (29) and Daniel Leech (27) but Park could only manage 172 in their 45 overs, which was 40 runs short of what they expected to score.

Winnington got off to a good start with the ball, with James Cowell and Will Chambres starting as they had left off on Saturday.

Adam Parkinson was again the pick of the bowlers with 3-50, while Chambres bowled well with 2-40.

However, a steady knock of 53 not out from Paul Gould ensured a Bowdon victory as they knocked off the total for the loss of five wickets, with five overs remaining.

Stand-in captain Mike Johns commented: "It's great to play against a side like Bowdon. You can easily identify your strengths and weaknesses, and it also gives us an idea of what standard of cricket we are aiming to play in."

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