The team skipper bounced back from three ducks on the bounce to score a cavalier 21 to help his team knock up 112 which looked initially under par against highly fancied Hyde.

The Altrincham Grammar School pupil was however outscored by Tim Judd who hit a run a ball 22 with Jamie Spencer notching 21 to stabilise things after early innings wobbles.

The home side's accurate bowlers throttled the Hyde response pegging them to a heavy defeat by 31 runs in difficult conditions.

A bumper crowd is expected at Stockport Road against a strong Oxton team for Sunday's county showdown with the winners on the verge of the national finals at Lords.

Meanwhile the first team's new boy Ollie Byrne, the ex-Altrincham keeper, hit a glorious century from just 52 balls to keep alive Timperley's forlorn hopes against impressive Didsbury who posted 323 for 7 off their 55 overs.

And that was despite him breaking his £500 bat literally in half having lost two balls he hit out of the ground. One witness, who has been watching Timperley matches for 40 years, said one six was the longest he's seen going over 100 yards beyond the clubhouse - and into the hockey pitches.

Timperley ended up with a respectable but losing total of 238 but it will be a match long remembered for in form larger than life Ollie's exploits which he celebrated in traditional manner that gave a morning hangover! It was the third fastest century in club history.

Finally the second team continued their great run at the top of the table comfortably beating Bramhall away.

After a solid start thanks to Freddie Timmins (35) and Santhosh Gopalakrishnan (51) - and mainly because of a swashbuckling 43 from 36 balls from Big Mo Usman they eventually posted 240 for six.

In reply Usman, a 35 year old project manager, carried on his great form when he picked up three scalps for 14 runs with the home side making just 160 all out in reply.

I'd like to just add a quick thank you to everyone who came down to support the club for Old Boys/Breast Cancer Awareness day last Saturday as well. It was great to see the terrace full of faces both new and old and we raised a good chunk of money for charity in the process as well.

The idea is this will be a recurring event running every season so please keep an eye out for next years date towards the start of 2025.

This weekend brings with it TCC's annual Bollywood Bash - there are still a handful of tickets left for the event so be quick to snap one up before Saturday evening.