WESTHOUGHTON continue to set a hot pace at the top of the Bolton League second team Premiership, moving well clear of their nearest challengers after an emphatic eight-wicket victory over Farnworth at Bridgeman Park, with Heaton, Horwich and Farnworth Social Circle their closest rivals.

Simon Ashcroft (3-17) and James Burrow (3-13) did most of the damage as Westhoughton managed to dismiss the home side for just 87 runs with Michael Daley making 36.

Farnworth grabbed two quick wickets but Kai Hodgkiss with 44 not out and Ian Pilkington 32no adding an unbroken 69 to see their side home after just 17 overs.

Heaton suffered a surprise defeat at the hands of Astley Bridge who just edged them out in an exciting game by two wickets in the final over of the game.

Heaton recovered from a bad start which saw them 9-3 through Ryan Garner 22, Mark Greenhalgh 31 and Jignesh Varsani 45 to eventually make 157 as Paris Patel 3-29, Mehr Khan 4-30 and Ramesh Patel 3-39 all starred with the ball.

Lee Halliwell then took 5-30 to keep Bridge on the back foot, but Paris Patel 45, Ady Cooper 23 and Bilal Patel 22 helped see them through to the win.

Horwich moved back into the frame with a good team effort against Kearsley which saw them winners by 51 runs.

Phil Cavill led the way for RMI with a fine 72, and good support from Josh Little 28no, Daniel Hornby 22 and Rem Mangineni 21 helped them reach 212-5.

Daniel Robinson laid a good platform for the chase as he made 64 but only Steven Pellowe 23 of the other batters made much headway as no fewer than seven bowlers took wickets and Kearsley were all out for 161.

Bradshaw also won impressively as they defeated bottom side Blackrod by 85 runs at The Rigbys.

Blackrod made a decent fist of casing down a target of 276 with Daniel Cooke hitting 55, Jacob Stevenson 30, Richard Ashworth 28 and Nathan Mayor 26 but were eventually all out for 190.

Bradshaw’s 275-7 was built around a stand of 88 between Robert Hardman (62) and Nick Palmer (52) with Cian Dickinson’s 30no the pick of the other contributions.

It is tighter at the top of the Association division where Eagley currently lead Darcy Lever by just one point with Little Hulton a further five behind.

A five-wicket win at Golborne kept up the Eagley momentum after they had restricted their hosts to 162-8. The home side had struggled along until an unbroken stand of 70 for the ninth wicket between Tobi Pantak 33no and Craig Ward 30no gave them something to try to defend.

Despite Jordan Close than taking 3-40, Louis Seigne with 58 and Dan Counsell 33no helped Eagley to their target.

Darcy Lever kept up the pressure with a 52-run victory over Lostock at The Levers.

Batting first they rattled up an impressive 246-9 despite Ryan Crombie taking 5-36 and Darren Parr 3-61, thanks in the main to a stand of 119 for the fourth wicket between Bilal Khan 84 and John Bayliss 41. Lostock lost early wickets before recovering through Lucky Issa 44, Andrew Mattison 36no and Stephen Kaye 21 but in the end they had to settle for 194 all out with Sajid Mahmood and Bilal Khan each taking three wickets.

Closest match of the day saw Little Lever earn a two-wicket win away from The Oval to edge out Walkden.

The chase for 189 was very much a team effort with seven men in double figures led by Rory Hulmes' 40 and Don Heyes 33no as Sean Morris took 3-64.

Their efforts meant an excellent undefeated 116 by Thomas Gaskill proved in vain for Walkden with the next highest contribution being 17. Josh Hill helped restrict them to 188-6 by taking 4-34.

Little Hulton made relatively short work of chasing 181 to beat Tonge by seven wickets with 10 overs to spare.

Brian Kelly followed up last week’s ton with an unbeaten 70 to see the villagers over the line with good support coming from Rory McIntyre 40, Roger Kumah 26 and Stehen Thomasson.

Nigel Partington had led the way for Tonge with a fine 80 as they totalled 180-5 in their 45 overs. Mohsin Patel 34 and Iqbal Gulzar 27 provided good support.

The final game of the day saw Adlington get the better of Atherton by a pretty comfortable margin of 63 runs.

Andrew Chamberlain provided a platform for them with a solid 52, and with the help of Eddie Haddon’s 29 and 22 from Liam Kane Adlington posted a total of 152-9.

Connor Gilluley provided the only real resistance for Atherton with 34 as they crashed to just 89 in reply.

Zac Green with 3-13 led the bowlers with the rest of the wickets shared between five other players.