Girlington close gap on leaders

3:41pm Sunday 6th July 2008

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The heavy rain on Saturday morning decimated the fixture programme, with only three games able to take place.

The only game to start in the First Division took place at Girlington.

With leaders Apperley Bridge and second-in-the-table Norwood Green thwarted by the weather, third-placed Girlington seized the opportunity to climb to within three points of the top when they defeated visitors Allerton (171, Raza Gulzar four for 49) by four wickets.

For the second successive week, the dynamic duo of Irfan Kazi (37) and Mohammed Azad (42) were prominent with the bat. In the Second Division, leaders Norwood Green strengthened their grip at the top when they comfortably defeated Great Horton Church by 101 runs – Nabeel Nawaz hitting an unbeaten 116 for the home side in their total of 224 for seven.

In reply, Church could only muster 123, of which opening bat Aaquib Hussain hit 62 out of 105 when he was finally ninth out.

Second-in-the-table Thornbury suffered a shock two-wicket defeat at Apperley Bridge, where they were dismissed for only 93. In reply, the home side suffered an unusual occurrence of a batsmen being timed out! Fortunately, it proved to be only a temporary glitch as Bridge reached their target to record a narrow two-wicket win at 94 for eight.