Winter Rounders League: THE JOHN Smith's Farnworth Winter Rounders League season started on Sunday with 12 teams lining up for the first of their 22 matches.

Last season's champions, AJs, continued their winning streak by beating The Victoria by 34 runs while Hanson had a comfortable and predictable victory over FSCCC B.

Newcomers Howarth Roofcraft are blooding some youngsters in preparation for next year's summer league and went down by 43 runs to Church Hotel who have rejoined this year.

Late entrants The Briarfield returned to the League after a break and despite having a full team, lost by 77 runs to Adlington while Capital made a positive start by beating FSCCC A 157-107.

Bolton Motor Bodies had a decent first innings against Siddons and were just 24 runs behind, but Siddons increased the pressure in the second innings to win by 62 runs.

After two matches in the Halliwell League, only two of the six teams in each division remain unbeaten. Division One is headed by Darcy XI and Westhoughton & District who beat Fox Trots and St Mary's respectively. Darcy trailed by 11 runs on the first innings, but turned the match to win by five runs.

Westhoughton, meanwhile, had a comfortable 44 run win, but the referee believed St Mary's had the ability to win the match.

Division Two leaders are Future XI and The Three Pigeons. Future had a 20-run start against Bolton Castle, without which they would have been four runs adrift at the interval, but the youngsters raised their game to win the second innings and win by a 25-run margin.