Middleton travelled to local rivals Milnrow looking to pick up the 12 points needed to secure promotion to the top division and that is what they did in style after bowling Milnrow out for 133 and then cruising to a Ten wicket win in 24.1 overs with Professional Chris Williams finishing on 57no and Leighton Le Carpentier ending on 60no.
Middleton Skipper Dale Highton won the toss and put Milnrow in to bat . Hoping to bowl them out before the forecast rain appeared.
Williams and Richard Dempster opened the bowling against Keelan Shipley and George Park.
Dempster struck twice in Two balls in the 8 over when he had Shipley lbw for 9 and the next ball he bowled Rob White with a beauty and Milnrow were 15/2.
Milnrow had taken the score to 28 when the rain came and the players were off the field for 25 minutes and the game was reduced to 46 overs.
Park and Milnrows Pakistani Professional Asif Zakir put together a stand of 75 with Zakir being the main aggressor reaching his 50 off 88 balls. Park was the one to go when Williams had him caught by James Tierney for 28.
Fourteen runs later Highton had Zakir well caught on the boundary by Dempster for 52. After the Pro had gone it was always going to be a struggle for Milnrow and they lost their last 6 wickets for 29 runs with Highton picking up another 3 wickets that of David Bebb (5) to another Dempster catch . Saiman Saleem (11) caught by Williams and Aaron Crompton stumped by Le Carpentier for 5.
Williams was brought back for his third spell and with his 2nd ball he bowled Matthew Barlow without scoring and Middleton rapped the innings up with 2 run-outs the first by Highton when his direct hit ran out Lewis Ashton (9) and the next ball Le Carpentiers direct hit ran out Nathan Williamson for 0 to give Middleton the Two bowling points.
All they had to do was score the runs before any rain returned and that they did with Williams hitting 7 fours off 74 balls and an almost identical knock by Le Carpentier who also had 7 fours off 75 balls.
With promotion secured Middleton will be trying hard to beat Littlebrough at home next week and hoping Colne lose to Enfield but the fact Colne only need Two points to seal the top spot it will be difficult but the Midd boys will give it a good go.
