The first win of the day came with Richard winning the toss and electing to field.
It was a slow start for the boys with the opening partnership of Cross and Perry getting to 66 before Ben Hamilton found a breakthrough. Holt came to the crease and both him and Cross looked set for a big total. However, Mason Turner found the wicket of Holt with the score now being 135. Cross was still damaging the bowling attack and reached 100 just before Richard trapped him on the pads which now made it 178-3. Richard then got two more quick wickets and scoring started to slow down with Hamilton also getting 3 wickets in 2 overs. The Flixton innings then came to an end at 209-9 off of their 50 overs. The two stand out bowlers were Richard with 9-1-47-4 and Ben with 14-2-53-4.
Clifton looked good being 45-0 off the first 9 overs before Dorsey was the first one to go for 26. Settle then followed quickly leaving the score 47-2 from 10 overs. Howarth quickly departed, bringing Hamilton to the crease with Ayers. The two of them looked good with runs flowing and in no time got the score to 110 before Ayers on 41 went for another six against spinner Stamper but caught off a top edge. This led to Flaxman coming to the crease, scoring a quick 17.
With Clifton now needing 75 from 22 overs, Captain Richard joined Hamilton with both of them doing well just as they did with the ball. That ended after Hamilton got out on 31 but brought the other Dempster, brother Dave, who both brought it home for the boys last weekend. Unfortunately, after a confident 24, Dave was back in the pavilion and soon followed Turner.
Sam Winstanley on 1st XI debut joined the captain in the middle. Richard took it upon himself to guide the boy's home while Winstanley looked like a brick wall at the other end and not letting Flixton bowlers take his wicket. With the game on a knife edge and excitement in the crowd Richard edged through to the keeper, but was dropped!
Richard then kept his head down and moved forward scoring the runs needed to get the lads over the line for a great win. Winstanley finished on 1* from 17 balls while Richard finished on 35* and showed a true captains knock.
This win means Clifton are now only 2 points behind Roe Green in second place and another step closer to a Lancashire Cup spot next year.