GOLBORNE, Little Hulton and Edgworth gave an early indication that they will again be the clubs to watch this season.

Champions Golborne scored a nine-wicket success at Elton, Edgworth beat Clifton by eight wickets and Little Hulton hit the day's top score, 201 in their 27 runs win at Spring View.

Two of the players who made telling contributions to Golborne's success last season, Ewan McCray and Andy Batterley, carried on where they left off, McCray picking up six wickets as Elton collapsed from 70-2 to 110 all out while Batterley hit 51 of Golborne's winning 111-1.

Jamie Birch emphasised Edgworth's strong batting line-up, the young player hitting an unbeaten 59 in his side's 113-2. They were chasing Clifton's disappointing 112, a score which represented a major recovery after early problems at 7-3. Edgworth's new pro Chris Jones picked up 4-46, Chris Locke 3-13 and Danny Beswick 3-45.

Andy Mawson marked his return to Little Hulton with 52 while new skipper Mike Edwards was unbeaten on 48.

At one stage, however, Spring View looked on target to match them as Neil Bannister 54 and Chris Rudd 45 took them to 101-1 with plenty of overs left but Little Hulton managed to achieve the breakthrough to reduce them to 106-4. Wickets then fell regularly before View were finally dismissed for 174.

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