THERE'S just no stopping Walshaw.

Wet weather failed to dent the champions' march to a second successive title on Saturday and with every win it is looking increasingly likely that the league trophy will be staying in Bury.

Atherton won again to stay well placed to capitalise on any slip-ups, another Adlington win saw them go third and keep their faint hopes alive but defeat for Clifton means they must beat Walshaw next Sunday to have any real chance of taking the title.

Walshaw were on and off the pitch due to frequent downpours and were given 36overs to win the game. In typical style they managed it in comfort with half a dozen overs and four wickets to spare.

Golborne made 170-7 with Ian Robinson hitting 59 and Ian McMillan 31; no problem for Walshaw with Brett Collins scoring 43, pro Jonathan Fielding following up his three wickets with 42 runs and captain Robin Faulkner unbeaten on 27.

Atherton started and finished the day 30 points behind but destroyed Edgworth to prove they have the talent to win the league should Walshaw falter.

Pro Greg Dimery and David Charlson stole the show with a 111-run partnership as their team passed the 141-6 target with nine wickets to spare.

John Mather hit 47 and Nick Kernick 46 before Charlson and Dimery went to work with unbeaten knocks of 70 and 52.

Clifton were not helped by all the rain delays which meant they had to try and overhaul Blackrod's 164-9 in increasingly gloomy conditions.

And when you are up against a bowler of the quality of Terry Southworth it makes it double difficult.

Southworth followed up his knock of 30 with a super seven-wicket haul as Clifton's title hopes took a severe knock.

They fell 17 runs short with pro Dave Parkinson hitting almost half his side's total with a knock of 73. The next best score was Ian Morris' 15.

There were more bowling heroics earlier when Tony Potter took six Blackrod wickets. Parkinson took the other three in a fine day's work while Blackrod pro Dave Morris hit 34 and Jack Southworth 22.

Adlington got off to a great start by whittling Standish out for 97 but it was not all plain sailing as they lost six wickets before clinching the victory.

Pro Matthew Taylor excelled with 6-44 and Scott Henderson took three more with Standish pro Pankaj Tripathi top scoring with 38.

Toqir Khalid made Adlington sweat a bit with four wickets for 24 runs but Michael Flatters' 23 and Michael Rawlings' unbeaten 26 got the job done for Adlington. Victory proves elusive to A&T BOTTOM club Astley and Tyldesley went so close to achieving only their second victory of the season.

They had Daisy Hill reeling with nine wickets gone, no chance of winning and four overs left.

But, try as they might, A&T just could not shift Mark Wood and Steven Evans and the side which started the day two places above their opposition held out for a hard fought draw.

Dave Nolan smashed 62 and Jim Cutt 38 as A&T scored 157. A&T were eyeing victory right through the Daisy innings but they hit upon a thorn in their side in the shape of John Norburn who went in at number seven and hit an important top score of 30. Chris Jones chipped in with 27.

The big performances of the day came from bowlers Steven Hodgkinson of Daisy and A&T's pro Nigel Doyle who both took magnificent eight-wicket hauls.

Lostock and Little Hulton failed to finish as the rain forced them to abandon their game 15 overs into the second innings.

Lostock made 189-9 with runs shared about, Matthew Syddall making 37, Richard Stobbs 38 and Graeme Beswick 37. Top performance of the day came from Little Hulton bowler Andy Sutherland who took 5-64.

In reply the visitors managed 71-1 before they gave in to the rain.

Spring View were 60-2 in their game at Elton when rain halted proceedings.