OULTON Park’s victory at Cheadle proved to be an important one.

A loss would have seen them drop into the relegation zone, in light of second-from-bottom Marple’s home success against ECB Premier League high flyers Alderley Edge.

As it was, Park kept Marple at arm’s length when they set Cheadle a target that was beyond them.

Batting first after winning the toss, Oulton achieved 185-8 in 55 overs.

They did so after overcoming the setback of losing opener Danny Leech to the first ball he faced and before any runs were posted.

He was clean bowled by Patrick Meese.

Nick Ward, batting at number five, led the run making with a 45 total that included two fours and two sixes.

Again it was Meese who stopped Ward’s progress.

Wicket keeper Ben Kettle added an important 37no from 47 balls late in the order when Oulton, at 109-7, were in danger of falling way below their own expectations at the crease.

Martyn East (20), Matt Jamieson (25), Mark Latham (21) and Callum Begg (17) were the other batsmen to reach double figures.

Ben Gibbon then came into his own with the ball for Park, taking 5-32 including Josh Dooler (48) and his skipper Greg Dixon (36) who had been building a dangerous partnership.

But after they had taken Cheadle from 60-4 to 138-5 the innings fell apart.

Harry Newton (3-51) also got among the wickets.

Basement dwellers Northwich managed to score their least number of runs in a Division Two game this year when they were all out for just 26 against table-topping Warrington.

Zenol Induja Marc Jayasena scored 15 of the runs and there were six ‘extras’ in the total, meaning the nine other batsmen that were called on mustered a miserly five runs between them.

Unsurprisingly, Warrington took less than nine overs to overhaul the target, though James Gittings (3-14) did not allow the visitors to get off scot-free.

It was Northwich’s worst batting total since the 27 against Tattenhall in April.

Davenham were bowled out for 118 after deleting third-placed Bowdon for 157.

Daniel Hancock (4-20) and Dean Jackson (3-44) contributed significantly to a bowling attack that forced the hosts into adding only eight runs in the final five wickets.

Only Hancock (26 from 26 balls) and opener Matthew Nicholls (28) made much of an impact in reply with the bat.