THOSE people who thought Valentine’s Day was held in February should have been at Rayner Lane on Saturday.

An excellent opening spell of 6-39 from Middleton bowler Rick Valentine saw him rip through the Ashton batting line-up to set up a third consecutive victory for the visitors.

Middleton skipper Steve Davey won the toss and wasted no hesitation in inviting the home side to bat first on a wicket that was still drying out from the previous week’s rain.

Ashton started steadily but not spectacularly and had reached 30 in the 12th over when Mellor hit out at Valentine and Danny Royle just failed to hold onto what would have been a tremendous catch.

However, both batsmen decided to take a run off the drop, but Danny Core picked up the ball and ran out Mellor with a great throw for 20 from 36 balls.

From being 30-0 Ashton then collapsed to 44-6 in spectacular fashion as Valentine took five wickets, backed up by catches from Ken Skewes, Phil Tomlinson, George Walker, Jimmy Ryan and Scott Stanworth to leave the Ashton innings in disarray.

The economical Skewes, bowling a steady line and length, took the seventh with the score on 46 before being replaced by Phil Tomlinson.

Tomlinson replaced the Australian and took two quick wickets, while Valentine recorded his final scalp as the home side capitulated to 67 all out from 36 overs.

Valentine was the pick of the bowlers with 6-39, Skewes returned figures of 1-15 while Tomlinson took 2-6.

What should have been a formality turned out to be almost a nightmare for Middleton as Davey decided to shuffle the pack to give other batsmen time in the middle; a ploy that did not work.

They were soon in trouble at 12-3 with George Walker, Danny Core and Danny Royle all back in the shed.

The innings never really recovered, with only Scott Stanworth (13), Jimmy Ryan (11) and Stuart Fitton making it into double figures.

With wickets falling regularly, Middleton were tottering at 58-7 before Skewes hit an unbeaten 13 to see the visitors home with all five points.

  • BOTH of Dukinfield CC’s scheduled matches last weekend were affected by bad weather. Although the weather was fine at Thornham on Saturday, the game was called off because parts of the ground were waterlogged because of rain during the week.

    Sunday’s encounter with Prestwich was abandoned with the latter 113-1 from 35 overs.