SEESAY Cricket Club are still on course to defend their Persimmon National Village Cup crown after sweeping past rivals Woodhouse Grange to reach the last 16.

Skipper Stephen Langstaff and his men, who beat Shipton-under-Wychwood at Lord’s last year to take the prestigious crown, saw off their Hunters York & District Senior League premier division opponents at the first national stage by four wickets.

Sessay, who defeated Woodhouse Grange in the quarter-finals 12 months ago, picked up key early wickets as their Sutton-on-Derwent-based foes won the toss and decided to bat.

Grange were 69-3 and 112-7 as Stuart Peirse and Joseph Watson both picked up a brace of wickets.

Captain Stephen Langstaff ripped through the lower order with a trio of successes, but Woodhouse were able to recover a little to record 172 in their 40 overs.

Steve Burdett’s 56 not out was the visitors’ stand-out performance with the bat.

In reply, Sessay advanced to 114-3, largely on the back of a solid 50 from Nick Thorne.

When he was dismissed the score stood on 158-5, but the home side got home with four wickets and just over two overs to spare.

They will now travel to Shireshead and Forton, in Lancaster, in the last 16 knowing they will have to win the cup again the hard way.

If they want to reach the showpiece final once more, they must win all of their remaining knock-out games on the road.

But with the club in a perilous league position, Langstaff said thoughts were not focused at the moment on a return to the home of English cricket.

“When you look at the league table, they are top and we are 11th so you would think they were comfortable favourites,” he said of the Woodhouse clash. “The key was to get wickets early and they did well to get to 170.

“We set it up nicely and, although we had a little wobble towards the end, we managed to get home.”

On their Village Cup prospects, he added: “You take these things one game at a time. The most important thing is our league form.

“We need to maintain our premier division status and that’s what we will concentrate on.”