It's looking like there may be shock winners in the Cheshire County Premier League this season as Macclesfield have now established a 27-point lead with just four games left to play.

One thing this game certainly showed is that a Macclesfield title win would be no fluke and one of their main strengths this season is that they have been under-rated by almost everybody.

However, Alderley’s near neighbours have moved into the lead on merit and – should they pull it off – they’ll deserve to take their first title since the 1990s.

Macc batted first at Victoria Road and posted a good, but not necessarily match winning, total of 225 off their 55 overs.

Edge were missing their two best bowlers this season, away on holiday, and therefore could be reasonably content with restricting their hosts to four runs an over.

Khalid Sawas scored another 46 runs and will surely win the Cheshire Premier League Player of the Year.

But, as so often in the past season for Macclesfield, when Sawas hasn’t scored a match winning innings, another player has stepped forward to score the crucial runs – here it was Rob Porter, who has also taken a lot of wickets this season, but made 87 off 118 balls with the bat and was the backbone of the Macclesfield innings.

There were two wickets each for Ethan Harding, Zaymn Chapman and Charlie Reid for Edge and if Alderley had not missed a vital run-out chance, the home total could have been considerably less.

Edge’s response was totally inadequate when they batted after tea and it was an absolute field day for left-arm swing bowler Craig Melrose who had the amazing figures of 15 overs, eight maidens, 7-19.

It must be said that Melrose bowled well but some of Alderley’s batsmen made him look impossible to play, which was simply not the case, and was more a reflection of a totally inadequate batting performance.

Edge could have been bowled out for even less with their last pair putting on 16 runs to make the total look a little more respectable.

Edge now face a vital game at home to relegation-threatened Widnes next Saturday and it is vital that they don’t lose this game if they are to avoid being dragged into the relegation mire.