NWCL Conference Divisions by Ray Taylor

In the Anthony Axford North West Cricket League Conference Premier division, Barrowford lead with 31 points from four games. Last Saturday they dismissed Walkden for 180, Bilal Afzal with 95 of these. Mohsin Rubbani took 3-19, but Muhammad Anas hit 63 to take Barrowford to a three wicket victory.
Farnworth are second with 36 from four. Tom Speak batting at seven hit six sixes in his 77 rescuing Farnworth from 33-5 and helping them to 159, Harvey Vause 4-54. Salesbury were bowled out for 102, Shujat Ali 5-38, Mohammad Khalil 3-15.
The closes match in the division was at Cherry Tree, where visitors Foulridge totalled 178, James Cuff 6-35. Cherry Tree ended four runs adrift, suffering three run outs.
Burnley Belvedere won by eleven runs defending 171, Harry Burrows taking 3-11 for Read.
On Sunday, Daniel Lord and Harvey hit half centuries in Cherry Tree’s 216, but Little Lever won by five wickets, Joe Whitehead 88 and Michael Daley 65 not out.
A Rushton took 5-53 for Read, but Salesbury still managed to reach 208. Read could only muster 93 in response, D Rawson 3-21.
In the Conference second division, the top four teams have all played four matches, Padiham lead the table with 34 points, with Atherton, Burnley Belvedere and Astley Bridge all on 29.
Chasing Lostock’s 123, Harsh Venna 6-41, Padiham could only muster 63, Nicholas Ford 6-23.
Five for 37 for Zahid Butt helped Astley Bridge bowl Blackrod out for 128, with Butt then completing a good all round performance with 63 runs.
From 58-1 Brinscall just about managed to double their score, Burnley Belvedere winning by six wickets.
S Patel was top scorer for Feniscowles with a century in their 297, F Jaques with four wickets for Barnoldswick, who ended their 45 overs on 178 with eight wickets down.
Earby top division three, with a maximum 48 points from four matches. They didn’t have a match on Saturday, but on Sunday Alex Hall made 58 in their 161-9 Matthew Hosfield 3-28. At one point Chatburn were 76-3, but were dismissed for 109, Declan Harrison 3-3.
Second are Oswaldtwistle Immanuel, who won by 42 runs despite defending only 89, Ehtesham Ali with 6-34 for Feniscowles and Zameeer Hussain 4-19 for OI.
Kearsley’s 135, Callum Atkinson taking 3-17, was sufficient to defeat Barrowford Seconds by 61 runs Mujeeb Momand and Mohmedruhan Tirmizi sharing six wickets equally.
Barrowford second team reached 260, with number ten batsman S Noor contributing 70 not out , the last pair adding 75. Sajid Rauf took 4-47, Foulridge seconds making 101, T Hussain 3-5.
Ray Taylor
Read lead the way in the Anthony Axford North West Cricket League Conference Premier Division with 49 points from 6 games, followed by Walkden with 43 from five.
On a day when several matches were affected by the weather, Oliver Dinning contributed 126 to Read’s 302-9. Farnworth’s response of 260 owed a lot to a last wicket partnership of 88, M Khalil coming in at ten and making 87.
Seventy runs for Aashif Ghantiwala and 60 for Hirza Sudhail  helped Farnworth Social Circle recover from 92-6 to reach 220. Walkden were 126-8, but Mehan Anwar and Sajid Mahmood steered them to a two wicket win.
Jack Fielding had 4-30 in Cherry Tree’s 167-6, then Harry Stevenson with 5-26 helped dismiss Ribblesdale Wanderers for 131.
Chasing Salesbury’s 208-6 (D Rawson 72, E Salt 65 and A Anwar 4-34), S Pushpakaran helped Foulridge to 168-3, but they were only able to muster a further 16 runs, the last four wickets falling for two runs, E Salt 3-21, D Rawson 3-25.
In the second division, Atherton have 41 points from 5 and Padiham 39. Atherton’s 130-9 (M Khan 3-18) proved to be 12 too many for Burnley Belvedere with F Shah taking 4-30 and I Nuttall 4-51.
Chasing Barnoldswick’s 113, Hafeez Ul Wakas 52, Darren Parr 4-51, Lostock won by seven wickets, Amit Dashore 63 not out.
On Sunday there were four wickets for Ady Cooper in Astley Bridge’s eight wicket win against Blackrod, and a similar number for H Nazir in Feniscowles six wicket victory at Barnoldswick. There were half centuries for Kevin Hitchon and Finlay Best as Brinscall defeated Padiham. Haider Ali contributed a half century in Baxenden’s 95, Uzair Ahmed 5-20, but Majid Khan coming in at eight for Burnley Belvedere made 58 not out taking Burnley Belvedere to a one wicket win, Evan Pinder 5-24.
Earby lead the third division with 60 points from five matches. K Mara struck 57 in their 224, with K Ishfaq taking 5-44 for Foulridge seconds who were then bowled out for 141, D Harrison 4-48.
A Ahmed took 4-20 as Oswaldtwistle Immanuel totalled 155. Feniscowles chased down a reduced total to win by four wickets.