Cheshire County Cricket League Div 3
Ashton on Mersey CC 1st XI 119 all out
Beat
Heaton Mersey CC 1st XI 116 all out
Ashton on Mersey began their 2026 season with a nail-biting victory over Heaton Mersey at The Beets.
Losing the toss and being asked to bat first on a tricky early season track, Ashton found themselves in deep problems as their top and middle order batting collapsed.
A mixture of accurate bowling and poor shot selection saw a procession of batters come and go for little reward. With no one seeming able to appreciate the technique needed to deal with the challenges of a sticky early season wicket, Ashton found themselves in the depths of despair at 58-9.
What followed was a remarkable last wicket partnership between Mark Weighill (34) and Zaheer Khan (28 no) who showed great character to put another 61 runs on the board. Both players dug in when required whilst punishing anything loose.
When Weighill finally fell, the pair had more than doubled the Ashton total to bring them back into the game. The bowling honours went to Patrick Glare who finished with 4-30.
The Heaton Mersey innings began in dramatic fashion with Ashton’s overseas player Charles Erasmus marked his debut by taking a wicket with his first ball.
The visitors struggled to cope with an accurate Ashton attack and wickets fell at regular intervals . Only Ibrar Latif seemed able to cope with the conditions but when he fell the innings stuttered and it seemed Ashton would cruise to victory.
But some late order hitting put the match back in the balance and for a moment it looked like Heaton Mersey might pull off the win. But Ashton skipper James Marshall came on to take the final wicket with just 3 runs to spare.
The result gets Ashton’s season off to a positive start but they will be looking to up their batting performance when they travel to Middlewich in the next round of games.
Ashton’s 2nd XI recorded a fine win away at Urmston. Ashton 204-5 (Joe Gadsby 59, Mike Roberts 48 no) Urmston 146 all out (Sam Kingsman-Ali 5-18).
The 3rd XI lost their initial T20 match at Marple. Ashton 82-8, Marple 84-3.
Pictured
Mark Weighill drives
Zaheer Khan sweeps
