Adlington 137, Blackrod 184-9. Blackrod won by 47 runs.

Astley and Tyldesley 139, Atherton 140-3. Atherton won by 7wkts.

Daisy Hill 162-5, Winton 161-8. Daisy Hill won by 5wkts.

Darcy Lever 145, Edgworth 106. Darcy Lever won by 39 runs.

Elton 206-7, Swinton Moorside 171. Elton won by 35 runs.

Little Hulton 184-9, Golborne 183. Little Hulton won by 1wkt.

Standish 145-8, Lostock 144-9. Standish won by 2wkts.

Worsley 210-6, Walshaw 207-7. Worsley won by 4wkts.

Flixton 205-9, Bury 207-8. Bury won by 2wkts.

 

JOHN Stackhouse was a debut-day hero as Bury pulled off a victory against the odds to go five points clear at the top.

The only unbeaten side left in the Association looked like becoming Flixton’s latest victims at 132-7 chasing 205-9.

Then in came Stackhouse, who has just moved to the area from the south, and plunged into first-team action after a couple of second-team games.

“He was a bit shaky early on, he looked like a walking wicket,” said Bury captain Simon Belston.

“We needed 70 runs with only three wickets in hand.

“But what a partnership between John and my brother Karl who finished on 18.

“Then we needed 30 runs and 17-year-old Mukhtar Nasir came in. He hit a six and a four, steadied us, and he and John got us over the line.

“We needed someone to put up their hand and win the game for us, and John did that.”

Nasir suffered cramp after the first ball he faced, but it was decided after a break for treatment that he would not be able to use a runner.

Bury recovered from losing their skipper early and went from 15-1 to 70-1 after 14 overs thanks to solid batting from Matthew Twentyman (36) and opener Mumtaz Mirza (33).

A slump to 132-7 handed the initiative back to the home side before Stackhouse turned the game decisively.

Twentyman was the pick of the Bury bowlers, taking Flixton pro Steven Lang and two important middle order wickets for his 3-37, and Nasir also played a crucial part with the ball, bowling seven late overs under pressure and taking 2-24 including the prize wicket of opener Luke Perry whose patient innings gleaned 41 runs.

Flixton were 50-0 after just six overs with opener Alton Beckford scoring 36.

They also slumped in the middle of their innings, to 116-5 before rebuilding largely thanks to number seven Adrian Holmes who produced a sterling 47 to build a competitive score for his team.

There was another dramatic finish at Worsley where the home team beat Walshaw off the final ball of the game.

Trailing by a single run, the home side’s Tom Othick struck a thick edge for four to earn a second league win of the season for the Association new boys who climbed to 12th.

Chris Taylor hit a superb 90 to get the Worsley chase well on its way, with opener Danny McKeown and Simon Hall chipping in with a vital 38 and 32, respectively.

Earlier, Nick Murphy top scored for Walshaw – who dropped to eighth - with 62 and Gavin Nicholl scored a half century, while Worsley pro Himesh Silva, Michael Gould and Simon Harrison each took two wickets.

Blackrod moved up to second with a 47-run victory at local rivals Adlington.

The visitors posted 184-9 in which a second-wicket stand of 81 between opener Joey Pryle (51) and Thushendra de Zoysa (36) was pivotal.

Middle order men Zach Barton’s 24 and George Tipping’s 26 also proved important as Blackrod’s last five batsmen followed them with just 17 runs between them.

Tom Foster took 6-57 from 10 overs and pro Majid Majeed finished with 3-38.

Adlington were looking good when they passed 90 with three wickets down, Majeed scoring 54 and Foster 33.

But their last seven batsmen scored only 28 runs between them, the major turning point coming at 125-5 when de Zoysa took three wickets in one over.

He finished with fabulous figures of 5-18 off 12 overs, with Chris Sanderson taking three good wickets at a cost of 23 runs off 7.5 overs.

It was all change at the top of the table on Saturday with Swinton Moorside – who started the day joint top with Bury and Flixton – losing at Elton.

They slipped to fifth, one place behind Elton who are one position behind Flixton.

Chris Read was the Bury side’s star, taking 7-56 after hitting a half century. Danny Fenton added 43 and David Murray 37.

Brad Palmer took 3-27 for Swinton who then replied with 171, Chris Norvall top scoring with 52, James Wade 42 and Jamie McDougall 26.

Daisy Hill had a five-wicket win at Winton to leapfrog them in the table.

Opener Lewis Johnston was the pick of the Winton batsmen with 55 during a lengthy spell at the crease.

Amjid Khan’s bowling was instrumental in the win which lifted Daisy to sixth.

He took 5-48 off 18 overs, with both he and Paul Hart (2-29) taking two wickets in two balls.

Winton captain Mike Seenan also took two in two to see Daisy go from 73-1 to 73-3 in the 26th over.

But Daisy patiently played their way to a winning total, opener Craig Atherton scoring 40 and Mike Chilton (23) and number five Paul Atherton taking the score to 121-4. The latter was out for 40 with the winning total in reach at 145.

Darcy Lever are in between Daisy and Winton in seventh after a fine 39-run home victory over Edgworth.

Opener Chris Fenn got Darcy off to a good start with 48 and middle order men Scott Burns and Jimmy Hill produced vital knocks of 26 and 20 not out, respectively.

Edgworth overseas Jaco Fourie took 4-57 off 18 overs then top scored for his side with a modest 20, Alex Lee starring with the ball for Darcy with 4-34 off his 18 overs while Nick Fawcett was equally tight with 2-14 off 10 and Taseef Hanif took 2-19 off seven.

There were first wins of the season for third-bottom Little Hulton and Standish who are two places above them.

Pro Ansar Javed was key for Little Hulton, taking 3-39 before scoring 48 as his side beat Golborne by one wicket.

Rizwan Hussain scored 42 as Golborne posted 183 and his team-mate Jamie Foster took 3-40.

Standish beat Lostock by two wickets at home, opener Niall Burke (41) and number three David Bowden (34) getting their chase of Lostock's 144-9 off to a good start.

The defeat was tough on Lostock’s Robert Holgate who top scored with 45 coming in at number seven and then took 5-57 off 16 overs.

Burke, Chris Gunn, Bowden and Cobley each took two wickets for Standish, and Lostock’s Neil Flanagan took 2-18 off just 2.5 overs, including the prize wicket of Bowden.

Reigning champions Atherton are down in 11th place, but only 21 points off top spot so tight is the table in the early stages of the season.

They coasted to a seven-wicket victory at bottom club Astley and Tyldesley who are the only team still without a win.

Jamal Griffith was a class apart with both bat and ball, taking 5-29 off 18 overs as A&T were all out for 139, Ian Nuttall taking 3-21, overseas Travis Wordsworth scoring 31 and Haman Patel 25.

Griffith, coming in at number four, then hit a classy 72 not out, enjoying a 72 stand with Matt Gallagher (35) as Atherton won with 17 overs remaining.