Steve Glicher was making no excuses after his South Manchester side were crushed by high-flying Knight Riders in the Greater Manchester Amateur Cricket League, losing by 172 wickets despite the heroics of bowler Avrom Topperman who finished with figures of 8-26.

Knight Riders were first in to bat and were soon on top with South Manchester struggling to keep the score down.

One bright spot for Glicher's men was the form of Avrom Topperman, who took seven for 46 as his bowling asked questions of the Riders batsmen.

South Manchester eventually bowled Knight Riders out for 172.

The South Manchester reply was over before it started as they were skittled for a palty 41.

David Shonfield top-scored with 11 as a swift defeat was confirmed.

Glicher said:"They were far better bowlers than us basically, one of their spinners took a hat trick and though we did well to bowl them out our batting just wasn’t up to it.”

"Knight Riders out-bowled us. One of their spinners took a hat-trick and though we did well to bowl them ou, our batting just wasn't up to it."

South Manchester will be looking to bounce back quickly when they face Wilmslow in the league on Sunday. Glicher remains optimistic that his team will improve as the season goes on and achieve mid-table respectability as they adjust to cricket at this level.

"Generally we are improving each week, performances will improve over the next few games," Glicher said.

"We're very optimistic for the rest of the season. If we can get half-way in the league it'll be a good result as the league is a much higher standard than what we're used to."