Manchester Maccabi fell to a heavy defeat as top of the table Ashton CC won their Greater Manchester League clash by 250 runs.
With Maccabi put in to bowl first, captain Ray Tammam got them off to a good start with two quick wickets, but Ashton soon started to pile on the runs. Maccabi's woes were compounded when Jamie Benjamin went off with an injured back, leaving them to field with just 10 men, and things got worse still when Mark Smaje followed him off with a similar injury shortly afterwards. Ashton reached 140 for 3 before Andrew Williams stemmed the tide with a wicket after the break.
Tammam then picked up an injury himself and Ashton continued where they left off, eventually reaching 303 in 40 overs.
With Maccabi up against it, Tammam suffered further injury before Andrew Williams became the fourth casualty of the afternoon. With the wickets falling fast, Maccabi could only muster up 53 runs before being caught all out, and Tammam acknowledged after the game that they had been beaten by the better side.
"It was always going to be a tall order to compete with the league leaders, and we missed several key players today.
"Ashton's bowling was very quick and very accurate and they deserved to win the game and be promoted as they will be.
"Our bowling was decent in the main and we were incredibly unlucky time and time again in the field as the ball was unintentionally hit into gap after gap. I've never had a day when so many of our players got injured in one way or another which clearly didn't help our cause."