IT was a day of milestones on Saturday as Grappenhall Cricket Club’s first team secured promotion back to the Cheshire County Cricket League’s top flight.

They did so by way of scoring the required number of batting points in their game against Timperley, and those efforts featured a special achievement for batsman Grant Hodnett.

The former Gloucestershire player scored the 100th century of his playing career, smashing 16 boundaries as Grappers reached 226-5 from their 50 overs.

Despite reducing their opponents to 60-5 with the ball, however, they could not celebrate promotion with a victory as Timperley recovered to win with four balls to spare.

Grappenhall are now a point behind league leaders Cheadle, whom they face next week in what appears to be a title decider.

Meanwhile, Arthur Pennington put in an excellent all-round performance to help the seconds chase down a victory target of 249 against Widnes.

Having taken two wickets with the ball, Pennington hit an unbeaten 70 with the bat to see his side home to a two-wicket win in the final over, with Zak Judge (34) providing valuable support.

The thirds also successfully chased down a big victory target to beat league leaders Didsbury.

Sixteen-year-old Yuvan Sunderamoorthy stared with the bat by scoring 70 before Ben Clissold smashed a superb half-century to see Grappers chase down 223 and win by six wickets.