SHIRESHEAD clinched the Hackney & Leigh Trophy for the third consecutive season with victory over Windermere at Bolton-le-Sands.

Windermere elected to bat first but lost James Park clean bowled to Peter Wilson (2 for 22) from the fifth ball of the innings.

Oliver Killiner followed in Wilson’s next over before Sam Fletcher was athletically run out by Nick Rafferty to leave Windermere at 41 for 3.

Nick Lewthwaite (68) then took charge of the innings as he dispatched the odd bad ball to the boundary whilst wickets fell regularly at the other end. Dave Jack bowled tidily and was unlucky to go wicketless, whilst Rowan Upton (2 for 39) picked up two key wickets in the middle-order.

Izhar Ullah (2 for 21) gave a fine exhibition of how to bowl at the end of an innings, whilst Tom Jacques (3 for 10) ended Lewthwaite’s fine innings, thanks to a superb running catch from Upton, before mopping up the tail to leave Windermere on 144 all out.

The Shireshead reply began briskly as Jacques struck a couple of early boundaries, but two quick wickets from Matt Park (2 for 11) saw both Shireshead openers back in the pavilion.

Phil Bovis (52) then built a platform for the rest of the Shireshead batsmen to bat around as he turned the strike over fluently.

Rafferty, Wilson and Simon Gould all played cameos before Bovis reached his half-century with a six over cover and then fell with the job almost done. It was left therefore to Jack and Ullah to ease Shireshead to victory with 20 balls to spare and four wickets in hand.