CHAMPIONS Oulton Park returned to the top of the ECB Premiership with their seventh successive win on Saturday.

But visitors Nantwich made it a hard fought affair at Little Budworth when the key moment was the fall of Queenslander Steve Paulsen, caught and bowled by Oulton's Robin Taylor at the second attempt.

Taylor cleaned bowled Paulsen, only for a no-ball to be called, but he snapped up the Aussie the following over for only 35.

Nantwich went on to make 211-6 (Taylor 2-35, Chris Jones 3-36), without looking likely to make the big score necessary.

Oulton still did not have things all their own way and, at 140-6, victory looked unlikely.

Danny Leech (21) and Ben Spendlove (49) had given them a solid start, but it was the knocks of John Davies (27), Stewart Eaton (25no) and Danny Jones (20no) which saw them home with three overs to spare.

Oulton 2nds 260ao (Steve Yates 95, Mark Johnson 50) drew with Heaton Mersey 2nds 233-9 (Craig Williamson 3-95).

Winnington Park 202-9 Cheadle Hulme 234-9dec

The First Division's bottom clubs clashed at the Rec and Park came off worse.

The outcome was a losing draw for Winnington which sees their plight at the foot of the table worsened, but skipper Stuart Hayes said: 'We are still confident of putting in some big performances in the coming weeks.'

He put the visitors in and he and Vishnu Bhardwa (4-65) were so restrictive it looked as Park would need to chase only 150 or so. But the Cheadle Hulme tail wagged vigorously and only a brilliant hat-trick by Aidan Baker (3-71) slowed down the scoring again.

In reply Park started well and were always up with the run rate, until middle-order problems developed. Loose shots and poor running led to a slide from 137-2 to 156-7 and Hayes eventually decided to bat out the final overs for the draw (Baker 84, David Leech 36).

Irby 166ao Middlewich 155ao

Middlewich slipped into the bottom half of the Division Two table as their batting let them down against a depleted Irby.

They fancied their chances of victory at the start and were even more confident after bowling out their hosts, with the last five wickets going for only nine runs. Stuart Price took 5-56, bringing his tally against Irby in two matches to 11 wickets and Phil Parry returned 4-46.

But the Middlewich innings began in the worst possible way with the first three bats - James Prime, Neil Webb and Phil Martin - falling early on. Martin Dawson and Jamie Williams added a mere nine more runs between them before they too were back in the pavilion and at 25-5, Middlewich were in danger of being humiliated.

The aggressive Richard Clorley and supportive Chris Broomfield turned the innings around, but when Broomfield fell at 98-8, defeat still looked probable.

Clorley, who fell to a dubious lbw at 90, and Phil Davies took Middlewich agonisingly close but defeat was ultimately unavoidable.