Week 15 Report: 12 point Saturday sees Bury sides climbing the tables

Last weekend yielded the biggest return of the season for our senior sides, with 14 points picked up across the two days, including two maximum point victories on Saturday, led by stand out performances from Alex Breckin and Mohammed Majid.

The 1st XI hosted Dukinfield and batted first, and despite losing one early wicket, had much the better of the opening exchanges. Mukhtar Nasir passed 50 for the first time this season before drinks, and he with Alex Breckin put on 109 for the second wicket. Jno Lewis was caught on the boundary for a quick 17, before skipper Morris (45*) came together with Breckin for another sizeable, and ultimately unbeaten, 5th wicket stand worth 88. At the close of the innings, Alex was left agonisingly short of a first 1st XI century, on 98* in an innings that included 9 fours and 1 six, with Bury totalling 241-4.

Nasir then backed up his good first innings showing with a wicket in the first over, Munir Khan bowled 4th ball for 2. Majid Talib picked up a direct hit run out in the 5th over before Nasir rounded off his opening spell by bowling the number 4. Dukinfield overseas pro Rameez Alam and former GMCL Prem winner Mark Dilnutt got the scoreboard moving quickly upwards before the former was trapped lbw by Ali Naizi and a tight Breckin spin yielded the wicket of the latter. Number 6 Ben Pugh (43) pressed on and still kept his side in the game before being ran out, before wickets from the spin of Talib and Naizi brought the game to a close - Dukinfield all out for 169 to seal a bonus point Bury win.

The 2nd XI, with a number of key players missing, managed to repeat that feat with an impressive win over 4th placed Stand. A calm first half of the innings saw the Bury score at 59-3 at the half-way point before notable contributions of 24 from Mohammed Usman and 35 from Gary Garner pushed the score passed 100. Mohammed Majid's quick 24 ball blitz worth 39 put the home side on the back foot - Bury reaching 159 all out on a notoriously low scoring ground.

Usman struck with the first ball of the second innings, with Matt Holt picking out Muhammad Raza in the field. Majid came into the attack first change to remove the other opener, an over before an Adam Smith stumping got the number 4. 46 runs were added for the 4th wicket in overs before Yusuf Zahoor had Chris Holt caught for 43. Garner took 2 wickets either side of a Majid burst that left him with figures of 5-17 in 12 overs with Stand bowled out for 105, 55 short of victory.

On Sunday, the 3rd XI game away at Elton was abandoned 10 overs into the second innings due to persistent rain. Bury batted through their 40 overs for 135-8 - Joe Mitchell top scoring with 48 - and Elton came off with the score at 60-2 in the 11th over with both wickets for Tayab Shahbaz.