LEIGH CC moved up to fourth place in the league and made sure of their Lancashire Cup place next season by gaining a maximum 24 point haul as they triumphed over bottom of the table New Brighton and the weather to record a four- wicket win.

Having won the toss and elected to bat, New Brighton lost an early wicket without scoring as Peters fell l.b.w. to Ronnie Davis. Bryson and Burns then steadily built an impressive partnership which was only broken in the 30th over when Avi Aware bowled Burns for 42 with the total on 99.

He followed this by bowling Sri Lankan star Hathurusinghe first ball to put Leigh right back in the game. From then on the Leigh bowlers took control as wickets fell steadily including Bryson who became Aware's third victim bowled for a solid 70 off 103 balls.

Only Botes (13 off 69 balls) and Watson with a quickfire 18 offered much resistance after that as Davis (3 for 18) and Chris Melia (3 for 41) ran

through the lower order. Aware claimed 3 for 44 off 20 overs and Greg Jennings bowled well to take 1 for 30 off 10 overs as the visitors were

dismissed for 161.

Leigh's innings got off to a poor start against accurate bowling from Hathurusinghe and Botes with both Andy Batterley and Steve Mullaney having departed as the score reached 26 in the 14th over.

Leigh skipper Dave Dove was made to work hard before opening his account off the 26th ball he faced and Gareth Cross initially looked edgy but soon took control and began to hammer the bowling in his customary fashion. Leigh were 81 for 3 after Dove was given out caught having scored 20. This ended a remarkable run of five innings since previously losing his wicket whilst scoring an aggregate of 129 runs in a total time of eight and a quarter hours.

Cross thrashed two sixes off spinner Horrocks's only over and was fourth man out at 138 having scored 67 off 65 balls including 48 in boundaries. During his innings he passed 1000 runs in all games this season including a total of 301 in his last four home games.

Tim Rees raced to 26 off 27 balls before being adjudged l.b.w. and at 146 for 5 Leigh were in a winning position.

New Brighton realised that, with the black clouds gathering and light rain falling, the most points they could gain would be four for an abandoned game and they resorted to irritating time wasting tactics as conditions deteriorated. It was all to no avail as Aware (14 not out) saw his side home for the loss of six wickets as he hit the winning boundary with nine overs to spare.

Leigh's last match of the season is away at Huyton.