Walkden'S hopes of consolidating their title claims were knocked back by Greenmount on Sunday.

They had gone into the game on a high after inflicting the first league defeat of the season on leaders Farnworth 24 hours earlier, and that was bolstered by a decent batting performance that gave them a total of 220-4.

Yet Greenmount were good enough to match that with their top order immediately taking control. Leading the way was Andy Kerr with 53, well supported by Andy Bowker (41), Nishit Shettty (39), Ryan Senior (35 not out) and John Ashworth (34). The tail-end suffered something of a collapse which caused a few worries but Senior stuck to his task to guide them to a one-wicket win.

Jonathan Fearick (81) and Mike Bennison (61 not out) were Walkden's top scorers, with Jason Swift adding 39.

Farnworth made a good recovery from their defeat by chasing Bradshaw's 221-5 to win by six wickets.

Lee Childs was the star of the show, turning out as a makeshift opener then carrying his bat for a superb 124. He and pro Brenton Parchment (38) put on an opening stand of 99 as Farnworth won with ten overs remaining.

Heaton were made to suffer again following Saturday's heavy 201-run defeat by Tonge. This time it was Westhoughton who did the damage, inflicting a nine wicket loss on them.

Heaton's inexperienced side simply cannot get enough runs on the board. On Saturday, they totalled 99, while on Sunday Westhoughton bowled them out for 89, Mubarek Patel taking 3-31 before the visitors eased to 91-1.

Eagley were soon in trouble when Kearsley new boy Luke Procter bowled in-form pro Mike O'Rourke for a duck. That quickly became 10-2, but David Shuttlerworth (53), aided by Alex Robinson (34), Chris Lord (31) and Nigel Duxbury (31), helped Eagley to a total of 181-8. In reply Kearsley were also in early trouble at 20-2 but pro Sherwin Ganga followed up his century on Saturday with 82 to take them to a four wicket win. Steve Foster had bowling figures of 5-45 for Eagley.

Farnworth SC were also nine wicket winners when they came up against Tonge. They bowled the visitors out for 164-9, Ian Tattersall top scoring with 36 before pro Kurt Wilkinson (58), Michael Ashworth (56) and Richard Hope (42 not out) eased Circle to their win.

In the Bradshaw innings, pro Wettinginghe hit 95 not out - his top score of the season with Mike Ward chipping in with 50.

Astley Bridge ended the first half of the season on a happy note as they picked up their second win of the weekend, a seven wicket success at Horwich.

The home side set them a tough target after Grant Long's 72 had helped them to 211-6. Bridge pro Dalugoda led the victory charge with an unbeaten 79. The Northrop brothers gave him good support, Rick scoring 52, while Andy Northrop should also have had a half century, only to be run out on 49.