Playing Hyde has been a bit of an Achilles' heel in recent years, and Saturday's home match again turned out to be quite a one-sided affair. Nick won the toss and duly chose to bat first with bright sunshine and a used wicket. Cheshire's Luke Young proceeded to rip through Didsbury's top order, removing Charlie, Dan, Nick, and Sam, all for single digit scores, with Hyde taking three super catches. Ed, Rob, and Steve all helped to keep the 1s afloat for a period, but at 86/7 they were in dire straits. James and Tom came together in the 27th over and had a large rescue job on their hands. They set out slowly, stabilising to try to build towards a good total. Gradually they moved up to the first batting point at 130. They then started to increase their scoring rate, with James hitting a massive six over the bus stop. The dismissal of Tom put a halt to any further progress, as a score of 200 looked possible in the later stages, but to reach 160 all out after 47.5 overs was a sterling effort.

Hyde started off fast with 29 coming off the first 5 overs, but Liam made some inroads with 2 wickets in 3 balls. However, the bowlers never quite got into the game, Ben Balderson played a patient supporting role while Young was teeing off at the other end. When he was finally dismissed by Nick on 68, he'd made over three quarters of Hyde's 90 runs to that point. Balderson soon followed to Steve but this only brought in Andrew Jackson, he of T20 cup infamy. Determined to finish the game before the Champions League final kick-off, he ferociously attacked the leg-side boundary taking 47 off 20, including 6 sixes. The 1s did have a few tough half-chances that weren't taken, but overall Hyde were the better side on the day.

The result leaves Neston, Didsbury, and Hyde all tied at the top with 160 points, Neston 1st by virtue of fewest losses.

Keen to bounce back, the 1s had drawn an exact reverse fixture of last weekend, at home to Chester, in the Cheshire Cup. And the game followed much the same script as the previous match. Nick won the toss for a third game in a row again chose to bat. Tim and Dan got off to a slower start but set a solid foundation in the first 10 overs. Ed came in and took a liking to 2nd team skipper Dan Riley, hitting two consecutive sixes over the scorebox but was then caught going for a third. That brought in Nick, who joined Jack with Dids in a slight bit of bother at 95/3 off 19. By the time their partnership had been broken, they had reached 244/4 off 34.

Jack initially played a supporting role, rotating the strike for Nick who took apart the Chester bowling line-up for the second week in a row. A blistering 106 off 56 balls contained 13 fours and 6 sixes, 88 runs worth of boundaries with the short leg-side boundary being constantly peppered throughout the innings. When he was bowled again aiming for the short boundary, Sam joined Jack for the final six overs. At this point, Jack had quietly built his way to 43. The fact that they added another 88 runs in that time shows the quality of ball striking the two possess. Jack reached his 50 off 48 balls. The final five overs went for 13, 11, 10, 14, and 25, with Jack bringing up his next 50 runs in just 18 deliveries, reaching a fantastic 102* in the last over. Sam ended on a very useful 23 off 15 to bring the 1s up to 328/4 off the 40.

With storms brewing Chester had to get off to a fast start in case Duckworth-Lewis came into force. Rohan got the dangerous Warren Goodwin early for a duck but Atif Qureshi followed on from Didsbury's lead, hitting a quickfire 64 up top. Supported by skipper Rick Moore (who shattered yet another changing room window), Chester stayed above the DL par right until Qureshi fell to Steve in the 15th. From thereon the chase started to fall away for Chester, with a few cameos later in the order, Joe Killoran getting a sparkling 43 off 20. However, his wicket, well caught on the boundary by Ed, spelt the end for Chester. Steve picked up a few wickets at the end to bowl them out for 245. Tom Magowan's spell through the middle of 8-0-33-2 really helped pull back any momentum Chester could build, going at 4.1 rpo when all other bowlers averaged 8.1 was a brilliant effort. In total there were 26 sixes hit, with 332 runs coming from boundaries during the day.

Onto another double header, away against another title-aspirant Neston, and the regional final in the ECB National Cup away at Barnt Green.