Christian Walsh has praised T20 captain Max Perry for helping guide Farnworth Social Circle through to the Birtwistle Cup T20 Finals Day next weekend.

Reigning Anthony Axford North West Cricket League Premiership champions Social Circle are chasing more silverware at Salesbury on Sunday. They face the hosts in the second semi-final following Read v Little Lever. 

The first semi-final starts at the Toplex Salesbury Cricket Ground at 10.30am, with the final scheduled for 4.15pm. 

Social Circle’s progression through this competition saw them top Group 1 South with four wins from five games before beating Eagley by 38 runs in the quarter-final defending a target of 190.

The Piggott Park club have done it trying to kill two birds with one stone.

Whilst chasing another trophy, they have also looked to increase the depth of their first-team options, which includes developing opening batter Perry’s leadership skills. 

Club captain Walsh said: “The guys have done well. I’ve not played any of the T20s. It’s been part of trying to integrate more players.

“Max has captained the team, and we’ve had a variety of different players. Lucas Glover has played Naqeeb Ali, Grant Mason-Platt. These guys are featuring heavily in the second team, and performing. So we’ve given them the opportunity to step up and play with the likes of Jameel (Stuart) and Max.

“Your more senior players – myself, Dave Mather, Chris Barrow and David Tonge – haven’t really figured.

“We’re trying to create that depth. Danny Hughes is a good example. He’s come in and filled a spot both batting and bowling and has been a great asset.

“T20 has been a real good chance for us to have success in the here and now but also to lay a foundation for the future.”

Walsh continued: “Max has done really well and is learning on the job. He’s still only 22/23. Even in the league games when I’m captain, he’s learning from the senior lads like Jameel, for example. But he’s applying his own style.

“He’s got a bit of calmness about him and is maturing as a player and person. 

“T20 is hard. It’s not an easy thing to captain because it goes so fast.”

Social Circle have progressed in T20 having not won a single game last summer. They played five, lost five: “To turn that around has been a really good achievement,” commented Walsh, who will be watching on from the sidelines at Salesbury.

“Home advantage is a big thing on grounds like that, and they’ve hit some form of late,” he said. “It’ll be a really good game.

“The times I’ve played there, there’s been a bit of life in the pitches. So I’d imagine 130 or 140 will be a competitive score.”

Social Circle are chasing silverware on two fronts given they are also top of the Premiership.

“We’ve only lost once in the league this year, which we should have won against Padiham,” said Walsh. “We had a really good game against Little Lever the other week and won and then at Read on Saturday.

“Our batting hasn’t fired in every game, which we’re conscious of. But hopefully we can turn that around. 

“Look, we have to take it game by game. It’s a cliche, but it’s true. We’re into holiday season now, which brings the odd extra challenge.

“We’ll just enjoy the ride.”

And going back to the adding depth and blooding the youngsters topic of early, that also extends beyond the boundary given a lot of the club’s next generation will have watched this campaign on Friday nights and hopefully this Sunday.

Walsh added: “T20 is brand of cricket which kids buy into, whether it’s Farnworth Social Circle, Lancashire, England. It’s fast and furious.

“One of the big things for us is having Jameel as pro. We’ve spoken about this so much before.

“He plays his cricket in a T20 style whatever the format. 

“He hits sixes all the time, and he gets kids engaged. He coaches a lot of them, and they want to be like him. 

“He’s a massive influence in inspiring kids to either just play the game or play it in a certain way.”

*****

Birtwistle Cup champions Read, regular trophy winners Little Lever, hosts Salesbury and current Premiership leaders and reigning champions Farnworth Social Circle. Read club captain Will Wrathall believes this Sunday’s Anthony Axford North West Cricket League T20 Finals couldn’t be set up any better.

This coming Sunday will see Salesbury host Social Circle after Read have tackled Little Lever. An early-evening final is then scheduled for 4.15pm at the Toplex Salesbury Cricket Ground. The first semi-final starts at 10.30am. 

“Salesbury are so good at home,” said opening batter Wrathall, who has handed the captaincy reins over to Joe Halstead for T20. “You look at their home record, and they very rarely lose there. 

“If they could improve on their away record, I think they’d be right up there in the league as well. 

“In my eyes, it’s the four best teams in the league battling it out on the day. You can’t ask for much more.”

The second semi-final is a repeat of last year’s T20 final, which Read won, and also the 2024 Hamer Cup final. Again, Read triumphed.

These two clubs have formed a very healthy rivalry since the start of the NWCL in 2023.

“We’ve not actually lost to them in a final, so we kind of wanted to avoid them in the semis for that reason,” smiled Wrathall.“But we’ll treat it like a final, and it will certainly be a good game. 

“The first season we merged, we should never have finished where we did in the league (14th out of 24 teams). 

“Other than that, we’ve been right up there in every single competition we’ve been a part of. Little Lever have been the same.

“We get along really well off the field with their lads. We both like to play hard, and it’s always a good game.”

Wrathall is looking forward to playing at Salesbury, where he believes it will be a different kind of cricket to what they’re used to on home turf.

“Salesbury will put on a good day,” he said. “Hopefully the weather’s alright.

“I think it will be a different kind of cricket there to what it would have been had we hosted it at Read. It could have been 210 plays 200 at our place, whereas I suspect at Salesbury 120 or 130 will be a good score.

“It’s a much bigger ground, and the wickets there aren’t quite as batter-friendly. But, as I say, they’re a good club who put on a good day.”

Read topped Group 1 North with four wins from five games before beating Barrowford at home in the quarter-final by only six runs on the back of a 176-7 total.

“We lost one group game against Barlick (Barnoldswick), which we should have won, really,” reflected Wrathall. 

“We probably got it wrong at the toss and put ourselves in a position early on where we had to rebuild. We managed to get a half-decent score together but couldn’t defend it.

“The quarter-final was also a close game, it was a bit of a scare.

“Other than that, we’ve been pretty comfortable.”

Read’s Sri Lankan professional Sehan Weerasinghe is the competition’s leading run-scorer with 337 from six matches, including a best of 146. He’s also the second leading wicket-taker with 13 courtesy of spin and a best of 4-24.

This competition will have seen a number of teams blood young players, and Read have done the same. In fact, they have had the best of both worlds. They’ve given up and comers a chance, including Halstead as captain, whilst retaining that focus on results.

Wrathall said: “We’ve had the likes of Joe Leach, who is a 14-year-old lad playing multiple games for us, and Isaac Spence. He’s a 17-year-old playing second-team cricket but has played every single game and has played a big part.

“Someone like Chris Holt hasn’t played a single game.

“We have given the young lads a go. But, saying that, we were desperate to win it again.”