Premiership leaders Read were beaten for the first time this season, as Little Lever claimed an impressive Anthony Axford North West Cricket League victory on Saturday to help breathe life into the title race.

Read’s 100 percent start – eight wins from eight – wasn’t extended as fourth-placed Little Lever triumphed on the road by 37 runs during a round disrupted by rain but one which saw five centuries scored.

The visitors were indebted to a trio of standout contributions with bat and ball as they won for the fifth time in nine matches. 

Openers Ryleigh Cameron, their Australian overseas amateur, and Cameron Murray shared 110 and posted 75 and 65 in a 204 all out total before Andy Flear was superb for 6-58 from 11 overs in Read’s 167 all out.

Visitors Farnworth Social Circle are up to second place after beating Salesbury by four wickets chasing a revised 142-target, their seventh win in nine. Like Little Lever, they claimed the full 12 points. 

Bajan professional Jameel Stuart impressed with three wickets in bowling Salesbury out for 160 and then a well-paced 58 in pursuit.

The Premiership’s top five sees Read sat on 92 points, Social Circle second on 78, Padiham third with 70, Little Lever fourth 69 and champions Blackrod fifth on 63.

Padiham were beaten away by Farnworth, while Blackrod won a home thriller against Tonge. 

There were contrasting fortunes for the teams at either end of the two division first-team NWCL structure as Championship bottom side Walkden ended an eight-game losing streak with a first win.

They brushed Earby aside by 91 runs at home and were indebted to the round’s outstanding individual performance, from Indian OA Saqlain Haider. 

Haider hit 120 off 82 balls with five sixes in a 39-over total of 239-8 before Earby, chasing a revised 277 in 39, were bowled out for 185. Haider claimed 5-74 from 10 overs. 

The Championship’s leading duo Ribblesdale Wanderers (83 points, 10 games) and Cherry Tree (80, eight) won at Barnsoldswick and Baxenden respectively – both by seven wickets.

Ribblesdale’s sixth win was achieved having bowled Barnoldswick out for 167. 

Jordan Britcliffe shone with 6-59 from 15 overs having taken the new ball before Sri Lankan pro Heshan Dhanushka top-scored in response with a measured 57.

Cherry Tree’s seventh win came in a 41-over game which saw them comfortably chase a revised 220-target having limited Baxenden to 214-8. 

Opening batter Charlie Elwood was their star with a fabulous 121 not out off 114 balls, including eight sixes, after pro Mini Bhada had taken three wickets.

Back in the Premiership, there was the rare sight of a team scoring more runs than the opposition and losing as bottom-side Lostock won at Atherton by two runs on Duckworth Lewis Stern.

Atherton are now second-bottom having finished on 125-8 from 41 overs overs chasing a revised target of 128 in 45. Lostock, who won their second game in nine, earlier totalled 124 all out in 40.

Opener Sam Barlow top-scored with 57 for Lostock before Pakistani pro Akbar Ur Rehman struck three times in a nip-and-tuck defence.  

Farnworth’s second win of the season came over Padiham, who are down to third, came by 87 runs at home on the back of a 215-7 total in 41 overs.

Farnworth are out of the bottom two after South African sub pro Lesiba Ngoepe’s excellent 92 off 79 balls. In pursuit of a revised 225-target in 41 overs, Padiham were bowled out for 137 thanks to five wickets for Adam Patel.

Blackrod’s fifth win was achieved in nail-biting fashion as Tonge, chasing a revised target of 119 in 35 overs, finished on 114-7 and failed to get the required 10 off the last over.

Wicketkeeper Jacob Stevenson was one of Blackrod’s heroes with 41 not out from number nine, recovering them from 65-7 to 135-9 in 38 overs. 

Tonge then slipped badly from 61-1 to 114-7. Sri Lankan pro Navod Paranavithana claimed four wickets. 

Sixth-placed Kearsley’s fifth win came at Eagley, by 27 runs, on the back of a 239-5 total in 40 overs. 

Indian OA Soham Panvalkar was outstanding with 104 not out off 90 balls from number four, going from 50 to 100 in only 21 balls.

Chasing a revised target of 188 in 29 overs, Eagley finished on 160-6. Mustafa Bashir, Irfan Kareem and Jack Scott all struck twice apiece.

 

Whalley are in third in the Championship with 78 points having achieved their sixth win in nine games, by 105 runs at home to Oswaldtwistle Immanuel. 

Whalley openers Monty Cort and Frankie Jackson excelled with 113 off 120 balls and 86 respectively in sharing a club record opening stand of 214. They totalled 224-3 in 40 overs. 

Oswaldtwistle, chasing a revised 244-target, were bowled out for 138 as Josh Dentith starred with a new-ball 6-35 from 12.3 overs. 

Oswaldtwistle and Astley Bridge are level on 63 points in fourth and fifth place. The latter were big winners at Brinscall. 

Captain and opener Syd De Silva underpinned a mammoth 320-4 total in 37 overs with a superb 108 in 91 balls with five sixes. He shared 208 for the first wicket with Millen Patel (75).

New Kearsley captain Andy Gregory says the club are encouraged by the progress of a new-look first team as they sit mid-table in the Anthony Axford North West Cricket League’s Premiership table with five wins from nine to their name.

Kearsley were 27-run winners at Eagley on Saturday, indebted to an excellent 104 not out from 90 balls for Indian overseas amateur Soham Panvalkar, their wicketkeeper-batter who went from 50 to 100 in only 21 deliveries.

He underpinned a 239-5 total in 40 overs before Eagley, chasing a revised 188-target in 29 overs, were 160-6 with time running out when thunder brought an end to proceedings.

Three bowlers struck twice each, new-ball duo Mustafa Bashir, Irfan Kareem and Jack Scott.

Bashir is the former Walkden captain who moved to Springfield Road ahead of this summer.

He is one of many changes there, both incomings and outgoings. 

Gone are the likes of Cameron Murray, Naveed Gondal, Kian Patel and Neylan Chauhan, and in have come Bashir, Kareem and Indian duo Panvalkar and opening batter Ajay Rohera as OA and their professional to name just four.

“Obviously, we’ve pretty much put a brand new team together,” said Gregory. “We’ve kept the core of a few Kearsley lads and then signed around it.

“We’ve obviously signed a very good pro and overseas.

“But if you’d have told me that after nine games we’d be sixth in the table with more wins than losses, I – and I think I can speak for our chairman Steve Pellowe as well – would have been pretty happy.”

He came in at 28-2 and shared 181 for the third wicket with Mohmedruhan Tirmizi, who made 68.

Panvalkar hit eight fours and five sixes, and Gregory said: “He was brilliant.

“We’ve actually had a bit of a running joke with him, where he keeps getting out in the forties. I asked him last week how many times he’d been out in the forties and he said that it was six.”

So never mind the nervous nineties, it was more the nervous forties?

“It was absolutely that,” chuckled Gregory. “But once he got to fifty, he was absolutely flying.”

With that type of total on the board, it was always likely to be too much for Eagley, and so it proved even if Will Shuttleworth hit an unbeaten 87 off 89 balls.

Going back to the Kearsley rebuild over the winter, it was interesting to hear Gregory talk about wanting to build a side around a core of their own players.

“There’s probably four Kearsley lads who have played in the first team this season, including myself, who have been at the club a long, long time,” continued the skipper.

“I had a couple of years away at Blackrod, but apart from that I’ve only ever played here.

“Jack Scott, who got a couple of wickets on Saturday, is another. Then there’s Harvey Wild, who has played most of the games, and George Banks.

“It’s obviously great to win with your mates. But, at the same time, all the lads who’ve come in have been absolutely brilliant. It feels like we’ve really gelled as a team.

“The rebuild was kind of forced upon us. Cameron was a great servant for the club, but he was ready for a new challenge, Kian went to Bradshaw and Neylan just stopped playing.

“At the end of last season, it certainly wasn’t in my plan to be first team captain this year, because I’ve only consistently played in the first team for the last two seasons. But, listen, I took it on and enjoying it. Obviously, we’re doing alright.”

Kearsley’s sixth-placed position sees them sit with 58 points and only 12 adrift of third-placed Padiham – the equivalent of one win. 

On the prospect of kicking on into the second half of the season, Gregory added: “We don’t want to set ourselves any unrealistic targets, but our aim would probably be to push for that top four and get into the Lancs Knockout.

“We played Read earlier in the season, and we can’t speak highly enough of them. They’re a fantastically well run club, a good team, a good set of lads, and I do think they will go on and win it.

“One thing we need to improve on is being a bit more ruthless with the ball. 

“You look around the league, and we’ve definitely got fewer bonus points than other clubs. 

“Saturday, for example, we got wickets early, we got off to a good start and then hit a bit of a flat spot. We went through the motions a little bit. It’s something we’ve spoken about.