The sun might still have been some way off reaching the nineties when it made a grateful and prolonged appearance on Saturday, but two Prestwich players did!
Carl Hey continued his outstanding start to the season with an unbeaten 90, while veteran Steve Orrell rolled back the years to crack 91.
Their combined efforts turned the heat on Thornham as the Heys side racked up a total of 272 for 3 from 50 overs.
A five-wicket haul from captain Andy Bradley helped becalm a spirited Thornham response, who held on for a point 40 runs adrift, and restricted Prestwich to a four-point victory
Orrell had opened the innings with James Wharmby due to the delayed arrival of Danny Jones, but it did not stop Prestwich making another solid start, aided by a series of wides.
Wharmby carried on from his unbeaten half century last week, and looked set for a repeat dose until he was bowled by Tom Grey for 44 with the score on 108.
Hey joined Orrell at the crease who struck three successive fours to reach his half century. After a circumspect start, Hey began to open up and struck a series of blows to rack up his sixth fifty of the season. As the late chase for runs intensified, Orrell was run out just nine short of his century, having faced 134 balls.
Jones found himself the unwitting run out victim when the ball cannoned off the bowler onto his stumps for 11, but Hey ended with a huge flourish – his final 84 runs coming from just 48 balls – to remain unbowed as the innings closed.
Bradley (5 for 72) began to spin his way through the home side’s top order – helped by two batsmen offering no shot and being l.b.w.
But a seventh-wicket partnership of nearly 100 runs from James Scott and Chris Heywood put a new complexion on the game. They came together with the score on 95 for 6, and Scott inparticular had the visitors hot under the collar, with a volley of shots to and over the boundary.
He smashed 68 off 43 balls, including five sixes, while the young Heywood was no back number, giving excellent support. The return of Jones to the Prestwich attack saw Scott’s stinging drive superbly caught by namesake Tom Scott on the deep mid off boundary.
Heywood reached a deserved 50 before he also fell to Jones, but the Heys attack could not grab the remaining two wickets as Thornham finished on 232 for 8.
Woodbank are the visitors to The Heys on Saturday, and will provide a stern test for Prestwich, who lie in third place in the Lees Lancashire County League.
