Runaway leaders, Brooksbottom, came to Manchester Road on Saturday afternoon and demonstrated emphatically why they will soon be crowned worthy Champions, with a dominating display that left Sam Dorsey's men in the bottom 3 and in serious danger of dropping out of the Premier Division for the first time.
It all started so promisingly for the home side, as after winning the toss and opting to bat, they found themselves 60/0 after 14 overs, with Moshan Iqbal taken out of the attack, who was struggling after rolling his ankle in the warm up. It was set up perfectly for a big one.
However, the game changed within a few balls, as Barker got McManus (28) snicking off, before the Pro then got Crossy caught at slip for a golden and 62/2 with the inform Crossy back in the shed made everything look very different.
A tentative rebuild from Dorsey and Donaldson added 40 runs to the total over the next 20 overs, when Dorsey was then trapped lbw when trying to kick on. The returning Iqbal then removed Joe Settle (4), Praharsh (0), Hamilton (0), Dan Jones (1) and Owen Hogben (0) in the blink of an eye to leave Clifton reeling at 128/8.
A well made 73 from Donaldson gave them something to bowl at, but a reckless shot from Sleight gave up 2 more overs of Flaxman attacking Mason Turner, which on recent form, could have resulted into 20-30 more being added to the total.
In the end, it would have mattered not, as Brooksbottom's top order tore into the Clifton bowling attack and chased down the 155 required in only 25 overs of destructive batting. A couple of early wickets from Sleight gave some hope, but it was soon extinguished as Will Turner and the Pro took the game away in a spell of brutal hitting across 4 overs that went for 53 runs. There was no coming back from that.
It's Monton away next weekend, which is now a must win to boost hopes of survival.