THE celebrations for newly crowned champions Farnworth Social Circle were cut short with a 34-runs defeat to Horwich.

Chris Barrow (3-8) and Dave Mather (4-70) played key roles in bowling Horwich out for 128 with Joe Settle (24) and Phil Cavill (21) made the only impressions with the bat.

In reply, Social Circle’s professional Rameez Alam’s 37 was the only batsman to return with credit as the hosts were bowled out for 94.

Babar Naeem did most of the damage with 5-38 while Marcus Pratt took 3-22.

Meanwhile, an impressive third-wicket partnership of 120 by Saeed Anwar Junior (76) and Tom Liversedge (57) helped Bradshaw to a 104 run win against Walkden.

Bradshaw scored 237 in their allotted overs with Nick Lester (35) and Mohammed Jameel (33) getting among the runs.

Corey Collymore (3-46) led the way while Richard Dempster also took three wickets for Walkden.

Walkden were skittled out for 133 in the 43rd over with professional Travis Townsend’s 34, Ryan Ayres 38 and Honey Garg’s 36 the batting highlights.

One of the contenders for upset of the day will go to Astley Bridge after their nail-biting four wicket win against third-placed Westhoughton.

The St George’s Oval side batted first and Atiq-Uz-Zaman (106) and S Dunning (103) spearheaded the challenge in the total of 282.

Yasir Rashid grabbed four of Astley Bridge’s five wickets.

Syd Da Silva led the way for Astley Bridge’s reply with 136 which included 13 fours and seven sixes while Rick Northrop’s 77 also saw the hosts over the finish line.

It was a similar tale for Farnworth as they chased down Kearsley’s target of 212 to win by one wicket.

Chesney Hughes top-scored with 54 with Karl Raubenheimer taking 5-51.

In reply, the Lavender Road side needed strong knocks by Scott Mather (65 not out) and Chris Baxendale (62) to record the win.

Grant Cordin took 5-48.

Phil Heaton’s unbeaten 42 inspired Greenmount to a nine-wicket win against Heaton.

Heaton were all out for 80 with Mark Stewart taking 5-50 and Greenmount knocked off the runs in 14 overs.

In the battle at the bottom of the table, Tonge came out beating Eagley by five wickets.

Eagley rattled off 211 runs batting first with Paul Rayment (52), Dave Shuttleworth (57) and Jake O’Byrne (37) leading their challenge while Chanaka Ruwansiri (4-89) was the pick of the bowlers.

Tonge’s top of the order put them in the box-seat for victory with Ruwansiri getting 117 while Yousaf Anwar (26), Daniel Holt (28) and Zeesham Mirza (22) enjoyed good knocks.

Egerton were celebrating after an eight wicket win against Little Lever.

Last season's champions Little Lever batted first and were all out for 101 thanks to Aman Delogoda's six wicket haul.

In reply, Egerton reached their target for the loss of just two wickets with Will Halton unbeaten on 27.

 

Results

Horwich 128 Farnworth Social Circle 94, Horwich won by 34 runs.

Bradshaw 237 Walkden 133, Bradshaw won by 104 runs.

Westhoughton 282 Astley Bridge 283-6, Astley Bridge won by 4 wkts.

Kearsley 212 Farnworth 213-9, Farnworth won by 1 wkts.

Heaton 80 Greenmount 84-1, Greenmount won by 9 wkts

Eagley 211 Tonge 213, Tonge won by 5 wkts

Little Lever 101 Egerton 102-2, Egerton won by eight wickets