By Mike Cregan

It was a busy weekend for 2ndxi’s in the Anthony Axford Northwest Cricket League with pretty much a full league programme on Saturday followed by the semi finals of the Ramsbottom and Lawrenson Cups on Sunday.

The Ramsbottom Cup final will see two former Bolton League sides Lostock and Farnworth meeting in the final after both recorded fairly comfortable wins in the end. Lostock batted first against Padiham and made a very useful 214-7 led by George Jackson with 71. Stephen Kaye added 55 (his 50^th 50 for the club), Kiishan Ram 33 and Aaron Berriman 28. Ram and Jackson were then to the fore with the ball as well taking 4/25 and 3/23 as Padiham were bowled out for 133 in reply. Johnny Ball top scored with 32* whilst Kevin Hitchon 24 and Joseph Edgar 23 all made handy runs. Farnworth meanwhile defeated Astley Bridge by 93 runs at Sharples Park. Bridge must have been happy to bowl out their run hungry visitors for 174 but then collapsed to 16-6 in reply before Ishy Patel 25 and Taimur Khan 32* helped them to a more respectable 81 all out as Sam Bradley took 3/21. Bilal Khan led the Farnworth innings with 54 with Zahid Butt making 42 as both Ishy and Ramesh Patel each took 3 wickets.

In the Lawrenson Cup, the final will see Burnley Belvedere 2nds entertain Little Lever after both progressed with comfortable wins. Burnley travelled to Eagley and rattled up an imposing 254-8 on the back of a fine 123 from Mohsin Ateeq with Saqib Ali adding 34 and Avanash Mishra 31. Eagley gave the chase a good go before eventually being bowled out for 172 in reply. Mike Craig led the chase with 42 and Joe Cumberbatch and Sam Hall each added 26, but 3 wickets apiece for Aadil Hussain and Faqir Mohammed sealed the win. Little Lever also made an impressive score as they made 253-7 against Stacksteads. An opening stand of 122 between Jack Barlow 76 and Pat Hayhurst 50 set them on the way before Adam Clark added a handy 38. Stacksteads never really got going in response with Gary Harden top scoring with 20 in a total of 112 as Miles Hayhurst took 3/33 and Callum Hill 3/28.

The Conference South had a limited programme after Atherton conceded to leaders Farnworth and the game between Tonge and Eagley fell foul of a wet pitch. Astley Bridge kept a firm grip on 2^nd place after defeating Little Lever by 39 runs at Sharples Park. The visitors had been set a target of 104 but a devastating spell of 7/26 from Hashim Akhtar destroyed the top order and just 2 batters posted double figures in a disappointing reply of 64 all out. Bridge’s top 3 all made double figures led by Jake Bailey’s 32 but the rest had little answer to Matt Mills 5/21 and Louis Partington 3/6.

Lostock’s recent good run came to a halt at Farnworth Social Circle where they lost by 17 runs in a 33 over game. As at Astley Bridge the home side batted first and made 103, thanks mainly to Chris Walsh 31* and Adam Cornes with 24 as Ryan Crombie picked up 5/32. In reply, only Jimmy McLoughlin who made 21 made much of an impact as they struggled against the bowling of Brad Barrow 4/23 and Andrew Wareing 3/20 and stumbled to 86-8.

Walkden hosted Blackrod and picked up a hard fought 3 wicket win as they chased down 164 to win. Arslan Khan led the way with 63 and Mehran Anwar chipped in with 36 as George Purdham too 3/44. Blackrod had earlier posted 163-8 in 41 overs as Tom Westhead. Lucas Ashworth and Daniel Cooke all made scores in the thirties and Nehanaan Rashid took 3/56.

Settle enjoyed a good weekend in Conference North picking up wins on both days by beating Oswaldtwistle Immanuel and Chatburn. Saturday saw a trip to Ossy where they picked up a 70 run win after making 160 all out. Andrew Foy dominated the innings with a fine 91 with the next highest score being 13 as Zam Hussain took 4/38 and Sean Dignan 3/58. The home side’s reply was then decimated by a spell of 6/9 by Harvey Green as they slumped to 90 all out. A trip to Chatburn the day after saw a hard fought 4 wicket win as Alex Dew’s 25 helped them pass their target of 96. Earlier Chatburn had limped to 95 all out as Ashley Bennett, Marcus Harrison and Mark Nerenberg all got scores in the twenties but weren’t able to press on with Paul Dockerty taking 3/19

Highest score of the day came at Church Meadow where Ribblesdale Wanderers raced to 256-7 in 38 overs against Foulridge 2nds. Stephen Tandy led the way with 103 as he and John Rain (48) added 81 for the first wicket with Luke Spencer adding 25 and Sarath Babu taking 3/75. Babu then dominated the Foulridge reply making 43 out of a total of 65 as Graeme Kershaw took 5/17 and Travis Bleazard 5/7.

Brinscall staged a good recovery from 75-6 to eventually reach 155 against Cherry Tree led by Oosmangani Patel’s 56 and Phil Jackson’s earlier 21 as Joe Ince took 5/43 and Jack Fenwick 3/59. Cherry Tree had the last laugh though as they passed the target for the loss of just 4 wickets with Haris Saleemi hitting 58, Kevin Reed 26 and Ince finishing a good day with 38* to keep them in the title chase.

Burnley Belvedere were made to work hard for a 4 wicket win over Earby despite chasing only 92. Jason Lockley took 3/27 to check their pursuit but Seroze Husnain’s unbeaten 32 and Zaeem Shah’s 30 got them over the line. Earby had also struggled with the bat as they were bowled out for 91 with Martyn Windle’s 27 and Josh Bond 21 the main resistance to Umair Saadat who took 4/15.

There was another low scoring game at Whalley where the home managed to get the better of leaders Barrowford despite having been bowled out for just 98 themselves. Barrowford’s reply was devastated by the efforts of Nisaar Hussain 4/56, Ed Burrow 3/15 and Sam Davies 3/5 with only Zaraq Ali 39 making any impact with the bat in a reply of just 77. Gary Barber 32 and Raza Hussain 22 had helped Whalley reach 98 despite the efforts of Aqib Saffi who took 4/40 and Ulfat Ali 3/16.

Read picked up a relatively comfortable 6 wicket win at Ribchester Road after bowling out their hosts Salesbury for 94. Ben Riley and Ethan Salt each made 24 but nobody else really got going for the home side as Read’s bowlers shared out the wickets led by 3/9 from Isaac Spence. Ben Woodall then 45 and Andrew Rushton 21* as Read coasted home.

Foulridge 1sts entertained Burnley Belvedere 2nds but it was the visitors who left the happier after a 31 run success. Husnain Ateeq top scored for Burnley with 66 and Ali Shabar added 22 as they reached a useful total of 162 despite Sardar Asghar taking 6/15. Foulridge then struggled against the bowling of Aadil Hussain 5/30 and Shabir who added 3/46 and were bowled out for 131 with Umar Ayyub making 24 and Tim Redfearn 21*.

Baxenden welcomed Stacksteads to Back Lane and enjoyed a comprehensive 7 wicket win over their visitors. Chasing just 101 Ben Brierley 33, Marco Bellanco 31 and Haider Ali 21* got them home with time to spare. Stacksteads were undermined by the bowling of Rashid Ashraf who took 5/25 and Adam Macholc 3/21 with only Tahir Butt passing 20 in a total of exactly 100.

In the day’s other two games Padiham battled to a 4 wicket win at Barnoldswick. Both sets of bowlers shared out the wickets and it was Joe Edgar’s 44 that proved crucial to the win whilst Michael Rawson had made 36 for the home side. Feniscowles defeated Barrowford 2nds by 9 wickets after bowling them out for 73 but unfortunately at the time of writing no further details were available.