By Mike Cregan

As one might expect given the weather bowlers continued to dominate games in the Anthony Axford Northwest Cricket League Conference divisions last weekend.

In the South Conference only early leaders Kearsley managed to top the 200 mark and even then they had to recover from 24-3 against Tonge. Grant Cordin with a rapid 50 led the way with Jake Whittle (46) and then Mohshin Patel with 70 helping them to 243 despite 3 wickets each for Callum Fenton, Luca Donnelly and Daniel Holt. Patel then took 4/29 as he and Tharsan Thayalan (4/19) helped bundle out their hosts for 89 with only Rob Tully (39) providing much resistance.

Little Lever sit a point behind despite suffering a narrow 9 run defeat at Walkden who moved up to 3^rd place in the table. Chasing a target of 181 they had a real go at it but despite 36 from Pat Hayhurst, 27 from Callum Hill and 26 from Matt Pendlebury they fell agonisingly short as Imran Ali took 6/40. Walkden’s total of 180 had seen Bilal Afzal, Mehran Anwar, Imran Ali, Nabeel Asgher and Nehmaan Rashis all making between 20 and 30 despite Louis Partington taking 5/52.

Farnworth made short work of their visit to Lostock where they recorded a comfortable 7 wicket win after bowling the home side out for just 80. Lostock had started reasonably well reaching 64-3 with all the top four reaching double figures only to collapse against the bowling of Sajid Mahmood 4/29 and Simon Harrison 3/11. Michael Daley with 34 and Zahid Butt 32 then made short work of the chase.

Blackrod were blown away by Astley Bridge at Vicarage Road in a game that lasted just 33 overs. The home side batted first and had simply no answer to the bowling of Paresh Patail who took 4/11 and Ishy Patel 3/7 as they were bowled out for a paltry 38. Bridge’s openers then made short work of the target getting the runs in just 5 overs!

There was another short game at Eagley where Farnworth Social Circle came away with a 6 wicket win in a match that lasted 37 overs. Eagley’s meagre 68 could have been much worse as they were 16-6 at one point before Adam Roberts 28 and Sam Tyldesley 20 added a little more respectability to the score. Chris Walsh 4/23, Keane Mulligan 3/7 and Lewis Whittle 3/9 did the damage with the ball. Stephen French’s unbeaten 24 then secured the win with just 10 overs needed to reach the target.

Results :-

NORTH – Blackrod 38 Astley Bridge 39-0; Eagley 68 Farnworth SC 74-4; Lostock 80 Farnworth 81-3; Tonge 89 Kearsley 243; Walkden 180 Little Lever 171

SOUTH – Barnoldswick 93 Stacksteads 1stXI 164; Barrowford 1stxi 136 Foulridge 1stxi 86; Brinscall 98 Oswaldtwistle Immanuel 100-8; Burnley Belvedere 1stxi 57-1 Padiham 54; Cherry Tree 76-4 Whalley 75; Earby 94 Chatburn 1stxi 184-9; Feniscowles 84 Ribblesdale Wanderers 145; Foulridge 103 Burnley Belvedere 264-5; Read 104-1 Barrowford 112; Settle 81 Baxenden 169

Baxenden are setting the pace in the South Conference with a healthy 9 point advantage after the first 3 games. Their latest game saw an 88 run win at Settle after posting a target of 170. Matt Jones (34), Toby Gouldthorpe (23) and Ryan Pearson also 23 set up their total of 169 despite Angus Ogden taking 5/28. Pearson then took 3/16 as he and Matt Crompton 3/23 inflicted much of the damage on Settle’s reply. Elliot Marklew with 25 and Max Seddon 24 provided the bulk of Settle’s reply of 81.

Barrowford 1stXI, Chatburn 1stXI and Read all sit on 27 points after the latest round of games which saw all 3 record a win. Barrowford entertained Foulridge and emerged on top by a margin of 50 runs. They had been in a spot of bother at 81-6 but an unbeaten 41 by Zaraq Ali helped them reach a total of 136 despite Rashid Rasheed and Shahbaz Munir each taking 3 wickets. Aqib Saffi then took 4/29 and Ulfat Ali 4/26 to help restrict Foulridge to 86 in reply.

Chatburn rattled up an impressive 184-9 at Earby on their way to a comfortable 90 run success. A stand of 106 for the 5^th wicket between Mark Nerenberg 53 and Jamie Birtwell-Jones 37 set up the Chatburn total despite the efforts of Ben Hall who took 5/41 and Jason Lockley 4/40. Lockley then top scored with 18 as Earby were bowled out for 94. Birtwell-Jones added 4/26 to his earlier runs, and both Andrew and Stephen Jones took 3 wickets.

Read were set a revised target of 101 against Barrowford 2nds and despite losing an early wicket an unbroken stand of 93 between Mohammed Zakriyah 41* and Mohammed Zafran 40* secured a 9 wicket win. Barrowford had been bowled out for 112 in their innings as Andrew Bennett took 4/9, Warren Eastham 3/31 and Jamie Woodall 3/34 with Mohammed Asghar top scoring on 24.

Burnley Belvedere enjoyed a good day with comprehensive wins for both of their sides. The 2ndXI made the highest score of the day racking up 264-5 against Foulridge. Kashif Parvaiz led the way with 70 whilst Saqib Ali added 53 and Mobashar Iqbal 32 with Aqib Chatta taking 3/68. Foulridge were then bowled out for 103 – a score that owed much to No10 Gullnawaz who made 42* as Tanveer Ahmed took 6/24 and Aaqib Hussain 4/31. The 1stXI meanwhile bowled out Padiham for the lowest score of the day, just 54. Seroz Hussain with 5/12 and Zahid Hassan 3/13 proved too hot for the visitors to handle and then Zaeem Shah saw his side to a 9 wicket win with 23*.

Stacksteads 1stXI proved too strong for their hosts Barnoldswick as they eased to a 71 run victory. Batting first Stacksteads spread the runs out with Andrew Holt, Ellis Hussey and Tom Thompson all making 20 or more, and despite 3 wickets each for Victor Sunil and Haseeb Hanif finished on a handy 164 all out. Max Hussey then took 5/38 and Matt Croney 3/11 to undermine the run chase and although Michael Rawson made 32 and Richard Green 20 Barlick could only reply with 93.

There was an exciting finish at Brinscall where Oswaldtwistle Immanuel eventually edged home by a narrow 2 wicket margin. Maneeb Alam got the chase off to a decent start but Dhanushka Lakshan put them on the back foot with a spell of 5/18, and it was left to an unbroken stand of 19 for the 9^th wicket between James Fawcett and Zameer Hussain to secure the win. Brinscall’s total of 98 owed much to a late flurry from Rumesh Parakrama who made 25 as Zameer took 3/9.

Consistent scores throughout the order led by Mackenzie Burgess’ 37 helped Ribblesdale Wanderers to eventually make a total of 145 against Feniscowles for whom Mark McGovern took 4/38. Feniscowles also struggled with the bat and were hustled out for 84 in their reply as Josh Dean took 3/6 and George Keir and Trevor Blezard 2 wickets each. Qasir Hussain top scored with 28 for Feniscowles.

Cherry Tree defeated visitors Whalley by 6 wickets in a low scoring game at home. Whalley went in first and never got to grips with the home bowlers as just one batter got into double figures. Joseph Ince produced an inspired spell of 7/38 for Cherry Tree as Whalley were bowled out for just 75. A run a ball 35 from skipper Craig Kennedy then saw his side well on the way to a comfortable win.