An upbeat Radcliffe Cricket Club captain Chris Berry was pleased with his side’s performance despite his side falling to an eight-wicket defeat at second-placed Milnrow on Saturday.

The Homer Street men batted their way to 241 runs with professional Nadeem Ashraf top-scoring with 46, but Berry’s team were unable to deal with Milnrow’s professional Rudi Second, who notched up a century, and Declan Wilkinson, who also scored a knock.

“It was a really good batting performance,” said Berry.

“Virtually everybody contributed and we ended up putting on 241, which is a good score and you’d expect us to defend that.”

Despite Radcliffe’s gallant run-scoring effort and Jimmy Dixon bowling captain Nathan Sinkinson for eight, wicketkeeper Berry was left to rue the quality of Second, who survived a lbw shout early to top-score with 157.

“Rudi did well finding the gaps and we could do nothing to stop him. He’s one of the best batting pros I’ve seen in this league. He made it looked so effortless. We have to take the positives from the game. They are second in the league and they’ve got a really good pro. That’s the only real difference between us.”

Radcliffe will clash with former captain Sean Gibson on Saturday as they travel to local rivals Unsworth in the Central Lancashire League, before a home game against Ashton on Sunday.