TOFT’S cricketers were second best when Marple visited on Saturday, slipping to an eight-wickets defeat.

Captain Toby Drummond (31) protected the hosts’ tail at Booth’s Park, occupying the crease after Jake Hancock (28), Ed Stubbs (24) and Henry Hughes (23) had each been dismissed after they had made promising starts.

Veteran spinner Andy Greasley (7-34 off 23 overs) did the damage, reducing Toft to 153 all out.

Wicket-keeper Mark Makin hammered a rapid unbeaten 77 as Marple quickly made progress to their target, reaching 154-2 in little more than 30 overs.

He shared in an opening stand worth 88 runs with Jonathan Marshall (39), with Pete Talbot (1-15) and Rob Jones (1-35) sharing the wickets to fall.

They will be keen to recover at the first attempt when they travel to Oxton, bottom of the Vivio Cheshire County League Premier Division table after three successive defeats, this Saturday.

Toft’s seconds fared better, building on last weeks’ defeat of Urmston with a six-wicket win against their Marple counterparts.

The home team were restricted to 159-9 from their 50 overs, with club chairman Nigel Muirhead (5-52) and Matt Cornes (2-24) returning the best bowling figures.

Toft then reached their target inside 43 overs at 162-4, opener Chris Drummond (49) and Sam Hatcher (44no) making the largest individual contributions to their total.

The Knutsford outfit climbs to second in the standings as a reward.

They play host to Macclesfield this Saturday.

Hatcher followed that with an unbeaten half-century on Bank Holiday Monday to help Toft’s thirds to victory at Haslington thirds in the Jack Gardner T20 Cup.

Chasing 105 to win, they scored 106 for the loss of only three wickets.