MIKE Holt kept his nerve to help Crewe pull off a thrilling win at high-flying Rode Park, on Saturday.

After a super day of exciting Division One cricket, Crewe were sweating with four runs still required and eight wickets down.

But 10th man Holt was solid as a rock as he clipped the winning boundary with 10 balls to spare.

Park batted first and openers Orme (67) and Capper (15) gave them a flying start before left-arm spinner Martin Webb was brought in.

He snapped up three wickets, thanks to a brilliant caught and bowled, and two good catches from Tom Gower.

However, the hosts progressed stead-ily to go past the 200 mark. Webb returned fine figures of 5-82, while Ranadeb Bose picked up 3-47 and Holt 1-26.

The last two wickets put on a frustrating 63 runs before a brilliant catch by Matt Dawson and a smart stumping by Mark Hurst saw Park declare on 232-9.

Reliable openers Hurst and Nick Lange gave their team a good start as they put on 51 before Lange (33) was trapped lbw. Gower (0) soon followed, but Jo Boyle joined Hurst and they put together a superb partnership of 134.

Boyle was finally dismissed for a splendid 80, followed by Hurst (64). The departures of Bose (9), Dawson (7), Richard Marsh (1) and Mark Spencer (9) put the game on a knife-edge, before a six from Martin Page relieved the pressure and Holt finished the job.

Also in Division One, Elworth suffered a heavy defeat at Stafford despite the sterling efforts of professional Murray Ranger.

Elworth won the toss and openers Kevin Underwood and Matthew Buckley patiently put on 41 before Underwood edged one to keeper Martin Brazier.

This brought Ranger to the wicket and he soon began to cash in. He eased through his second consecutive 50, but with time running out, a lofted drive saw him caught out for 74.

Buckley (34) soon followed, and Dave Palin (10) and Rob Beech (9) both lost their wickets trying to force the scoring. Alex Edmonstone struck 26 valuable runs as Elworth closed on 199-5.

Paul Crompton and Ranger made a good start after tea by claiming a wicket each, but Stafford's Robert James (55) and pro Madhusan Acharya (84) started to accumulate runs.

Both hit half centuries before Elworth finally got a breakthrough. Mark Bengry (32 not out) then joined the fun as Stafford reached their target with 19 balls and six wickets to spare, with 200-7.

Struggling Betley were easily outplayed by visitors Cheadle. The hosts were skittled for 97, and Cheadle reached 98 for the loss of four wickets.

In Division Two, Weston and Haslington both endured the bitter taste of defeat. Haslington (93 all out) were comfortably undone by visitors Whitmore, who reached 94-5 despite the efforts of Sohail Tanvir (3-52).

Saad Wasim smashed 91 not out as Weston were 201 all out, but it was not enough to reach the 214-6 target set by Oulton, who benefited from half-centuries for H Patel (53 not out), J Collett (50) and P Malkin (50).

Second team scores - Division One B: Cheadle 247-3(dec) (J Ashley 3-52) Betley 140ao (Darren Snape 61); Crewe 72ao Rode Park & Lawton 206-6(dec); Elworth 219-2(dec) (Ross Kesteven 116 not out, Kev Ballard 40) Stafford 147-8 (J Gaskil 4-37).

Division Two B: Weston 195-8dec (R Heald 37, R Newton 40) Newcastle & Hartshill 197-6; Whitmore 157ao (M Lowndes 38, A Phipps 4-27, D France 5-44) Haslington 158-4 (A Hayes 58 not out, Al Bedonsen 39).