COLIN Mountford produced his best bowling display of the season on Saturday to give second-placed Alvanley a major scare.

Mountford claimed five for 37 off 18 overs, his second best figures this season, as Congleton earned an excellent draw with their title-chasing opponents.

Congleton opened with 180 for six, skipper Paul Mitchell top scoring with 46, ahead of 43 from vice-captain Rowan Kitton.

Alvanley were in serious trouble at 134 for eight in reply, with seven overs left, but hung on to share the spoils with 146 for eight.

Congleton earned 14 points to seven for Alvanley.

Mitchell and Kitton produced the outstanding partnership for Congleton, taking the score from 42 for two to 118 before Kitton was run out.

Opener Adrian Dale contributed a knock of 25, with 16 for number six John Thompson and 15 not out from number seven Mark Burgess.

Burgess also took two stumpings behind the wicket, and is the league's top wicket keeper, having claimed eight stumpings and 17 catches this season.

Alvanley hit 49 before the loss of their first wicket, but although they were looking for a win were never scoring fast enough to put themselves in with a realistic chance of victory.

They lost their second and third men at 54 and 70, and Congleton gave themselves hope of a win by claiming Alvanley's sixth, seventh and eighth wicket with the score on 130, 131 and 134.

Stuart Adlam took one for 27, Jake Capper claimed one for 30, and there was a run out.

"Overall it was a good performance from us, and I was delighted,'' said Congleton chairman Mike Kitton.

"We were very pleased with our innings, because they are second in the league, and 180 is a tall order when you are chasing runs.

"Rowan Kitton and Paul Mitchell batted very well, although Rowan got himseld out after going for a second on an overthrow.

"The middle order did pretty well, but Colin Mountford was exceptional, and produced his best performance of the season.''

Congleton 2nds won at Alvanley to keep them top of the league, both first and second X1s having three games left.

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