Macclesfield were defeated by newly-promoted Bowdon at Victoria Road in their first home game of the season.

Bowdon chose to bowl on a hard wicket but Macclesfield openers Ben Morrison and Rob Keen started positively, quickly taking the score to 31 before Morrison was trapped LBW by former Glamorgan paceman Chris Ashling.

Khalid Sawas, Rob Porter and Nick Ross followed at regular intervals, leaving Macclesfield 112-4. Australian Ross again looked good with his start of 23 before being undone by an excellent delivery.

Keen continued to underline his class and played some delightful strokes around the ground before being dismissed for 79.

After Keen’s departure, Macclesfield continued to up the run rate with Eddie Bones and Craig Melrose the main contributors.

Bones, making his first home appearance since returning to the club, drilled the bowling attack around the ground with a run-a-ball 62 while Melrose picked up where he left off last week and made a quickfire 30, including one over – from former Lancashire leg-spinner Simn Marshall – going for 22.

The innings closed on 265-9 off 53 overs, leaving Macclesfield 57 overs to bowl at Bowdon.

Cheshire paceman Ian Tait and Craig Melrose opened for Macclesfield with the former removing Australian Trent McCormick with the score on just five.

The aforementioned Marshall was joined by Stephen Ball at the crease with Marshall as primary run scorer and punishing the bad ball at regular intervals.

With Macclesfield looking to take the initiative, Jack Ward was introduced to the attack and gave Ball in particular a torrid time with a well-directed probing length.

But Marshall and Ball held on and added 140 for the second wicket before Ward removed Marshall, caught behind by Melrose.

With captain Morrison rotating his options at regular intervals, Macclesfield looked to seize the initiative as they have done so on many occasions in the past.

When Ball was excellently caught by Tait off his own bowling for a gritty 62, the game was again evenly poised with all results possible.

New batsmen Foakes and Bryan-Jones were subjected to an onslaught from Tait, Melrose and Ward but batted with much maturity to add 96 for the fourth wicket.

Despite a couple of late Tait wickets, which saw him finish with figures of 4-50, Bowdon got home with four overs to spare in a match sponsored by Macclesfield’s New Shalimar Restaurant.

The second Xl enjoyed their second successive win, at Sale.

They posted 196-6 from their 50 overs, with Alex Griffiths finishing not out on 92.

In reply, Sale were dismissed for 104 inside 37 overs with Barney Cutbill finishing on 3-37.

The third XI succumbed to defeat at Irby and will look to bounce back next week.