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Farnworth back to South summit after big Tonge triumph
Farnworth have moved back to the top of Conference South after an emphatic 212-run win against Tonge at Bridgeman Park.
A stand of 126 for the sixth wicket between Rizwan Pervez, who made a run-a-ball 158, and Bilal Khan, with 73, set them up for a very impressive 299-6 as Daniel Holt picked up three wickets. Tonge never got going in reply and with both Mehr Khan and Sam Bradley taking three wickets each, collapsed to 87 all out, Cliff Collings top scoring with 21 at number 11.
Daniel Hughes, with a run-a-ball century (101 not out), together with Dale Tyrer (33) and 27 from Greg Greenough, helped propel Atherton to a total of 223-3 against Astley Bridge at Higham Park, which saw them to a 36-run win. Hughes then took 3-48 as Bridge were restricted to 187-9 in reply. Jamie Cooper made 53no, Ady Cooper scored 31 and Zain Ahmed hit 29.
Another high-scoring team were Farnworth Social Circle, who rattled up 296 against Blackrod on their way to a 55-run success. Liam Ashworth led the way with 90, with good support from Darren Whittle (44), Brad Barrow (40) and Kane Mulligan (39), as Jacob Ashworth took 4-69 and George Purdham 3-42. To finish off a good day to be named Ashworth, Steve led the Blackrod reply with an unbeaten 102 helped by Jack Southworth and Graeme Walsh, who both hit 34, but they fell just short on 241-9 after a valiant chase.
Lostock romped to a nine-wicket win at Eagley, where they bowled the home side out for 138. Darren Parr, with 3-39, and Tom Gregory (3-35) did the bulk of the damage with the main resistance coming from Oli Tuck, who made 25, and Will Hope, with 24. Lostock then raced home with Amit Dashore making 42, Stephen Kaye 47no and Aaron Berriman 26no, with some 24 overs to spare.
It was a much tighter affair at Walkden where the home side just edged out Kearsley by the narrow margin of two wickets. Chasing a target of 177, they eventually got there with eight wickets down, thanks mainly to Mehran Anwar (55), Bilal Afzal (32) and Imran Ali (25), as George Banks took 5-69. Kearsley’s total of 176 had been built around 58 from Harvey Wild, with Mohshin Khan adding 27 and Abby Mort 24, Ali adding three wickets to his runs.
Foulridge are the new leaders of Conference North following their 177-run thrashing of Barnoldswick. Batting first, they smashed an impressive 322-8 with Jabbran Sajjad making an undefeated 115, aided by Jonathon Swarbrick (44), Sardar Asghar (47) and Umar Ayyub (35). Mohammed Rauf then took 5-54 to help restrict the reply to 145, despite the efforts of Haseeb Hanif (28) and Victor Sunil (20no).
Previous leaders Burnley Belvedere seconds were knocked off their perch by virtue of a 20-run loss away to Brinscall. The home side batted first and, thanks mainly to a stand of 68 for the eighth wicket between Mohsin Jangarwala (33) and Oosmanjani Patel (36no), managed to reach 151 all out, with Aadil Hussain taking 4-36 and Mohammed Anas 3-18. Jangarwala then took 4-40 as Burnley were restricted to 131 in reply, with Kashif Parvaiz top scoring on 30.
Barrowford sit in second place after a pulsating win at Oswaldtwistle Immanuel by just five runs. Ulfat Ali top scored for the visitors with 42, and with Callum Atkinson adding 40 and Simon Jones 27, they managed to reach 156, despite Sean Dignan taking 5-21 and Maneeb Alam 3-22. Ossy then finished agonisingly close on 151 in reply after Oliver Love made 34 and Zumeer Hussain 36, but with Ali adding 4-30 to his runs and Abdul Ahmad taking 3-33, Barrowford just held on.
Salesbury come next after a 71-run win at Chatburn. Although Ashley Bennett made 44 and Mark Nerenberg 20, Chatburn never really looked like challenging a target of 225 and were bowled out for 153 in reply, with Daniel Rawson taking 4-37. Rawson had earlier made 38 as Salesbury reached 224 all out, with Oliver Rawson adding 49 and Toby Furbush 36 as Richard Shovelton took 4-51 and Jamie Birtwell-Jones 3-78.
Cherry Tree make up the top four following an exciting 28-run win against Settle. Chasing a target of 260, Settle had a real go at it before eventually being bowled out for 231 in reply. Nick Cokell led the charge with 75, with Elliot Marklew adding 32 and John Tarbox 27, while John Fenwick and Charlie Errey each took three wickets. Cherry Tree’s total of 259-9 was thanks in the main to 62 from Stephen Elwood, Joseph Ince (52) and Craig Kennedy, with 42, as Paul Dockerty took 4-58.
Whalley came way from Burnley Belvedere with a five-wicket win in a low-scoring encounter. Chasing just 74 to win, a spell of 3-27 from Seroze Hussain made them work hard, but Ehtesham Ali’s 23 helped secure the win. Hussain had earlier top scored for Burnley as they collapsed against the bowling of Ed Burrow (4-28) and Sam Davies (3-8).
There was another low-scoring game at Feniscowles where the home side were bowled out for just 70 by visitors Read, who went on to win by seven wickets. Paul Slater provided the only bright spot for the home side with 24 as they crumbled against the bowling of George Wrathall (5-22) and Martyn Windle (3-31). A rapid unbeaten 43 from Mohammed Zakriyah then saw Read to the win.
By contrast, the game at Earby eventually saw the home side get home by just two wickets chasing 119 against Padiham. The visitors were bundled out for 118, with Alex Hall taking 5-30 and Martyn Windle 3-31, as only Liam Simm provided much resistance with 34. Earby raced to their target in 25 overs, but lost eight wickets in doing so with Jimmy Gray taking 3-34 and Bailey Muldoon 3-22.
