LINDOW were one wicket away from winning their Division Two clash against Brooklands.

Charlie Williams (41no) and Osman Butt (39) batted through the middle overs to rescue Lindow to 168-9 at tea.

Then Lindow achieved a wicket in the first over from Tim Young (3-32).

Brooklands had their best partnership after that, putting on 87 for the second wicket.

When Ryan O’Brien (2-31) got the South African Kevin Carrol out for 64, caught on the boundary by Luke Unsworth, it changed the game.

Tidy bowling by Lindow made it hard for Brooklands to score but with 10 overs left, and only needing 30, it was the batting side’s to lose.

Some late wickets by Alex Mathews and Young, along with some super catching, saw Brooklands reach 151-9 for the draw.

Lindow’s seconds put up a brave performance which ultimately ended in defeat against Bollington.

The highlights of Lindow’s 200 were a fluent knock by opener Dan Braddock (55) and wily veteran Pete Hodge (also 55).

Lindow were ultimately undone by the lack of an available spinner, who would have been able to exploit the dry and dusty pitch.

The members of the seam attack tried valiantly but were unable to stop the Bollington captain from steering his side home with a doughty century.

On Sunday the high-flying thirds made short work of Bredbury St Marks to claim another maximum 25 points.

After inviting Bredbury to bat first upon winning the toss, Lindow’s attack bowled straight and full, and supported by another demonstration of excellent fielding - the highlight of which was Pete Venables’ astounding one-handed diving catch at slip - restricted the home team to 117 from their 40 overs.

The highlight of the bowling was in-form Liam Jones, who claimed another four wickets to add to last week’s tally of five.

Lindow reached their target for the loss of only three wickets, with young opening bat Max Espley notching another half century.

This Sunday’s clash with fellow title challenging Sale promises to be a humdinger.