NOT even ex-Lancashire and England ace Warren Hegg could help Farnworth over the finish line against Kearsley.

He contributed 28 with the bat as Farnworth tried to chase down 199 before last man Chris Wilson played the ball on to his own stumps with the scores level.

Darren Little (60), Siraj Patel (35) and Richard Hamblett (37) all had solid knocks for Kearsley, while Farnworth bowlers Wilson (2-29), Adil Nisar (2-52) and pro Carl Raubenheimer (2-50) shared the wickets.

Hassan Adnan spearheaded the Farnworth reply with a half century and Nisar chipped in with 42 before Hegg’s knock pushed the score along only for Kearsley to peg them back and force a dramatic finish. Imran Khalid was the pick of their bowlers with 5-62.

Elsewhere, Farnworth Social Circle enjoyed a 31-run victory against Horwich thanks to an impressive 72 not out by Josh Bohannon.

The league-leaders won the toss and opted to bat first with Andrew Lane (32), David Tonge (38) and Bohannon scoring well as they reached 186-7.

Adam Street (3-27) and pro Babar Naeem (2-76) did most of the damage.

Naeem also topped the batting with 54, supported well by David Morris (26 not out) and Joe Settle (20) but they fell short.

Liam Bones took 3-58 while Jay Chana claimed two scalps along with Chris Barrow.

Second-placed Bradshaw kept up the pressure on Social Circle with a 58-run win against Walkden.

Mohamed Jameel’s 51 and Phil Dickenson’s 43 in the middle of the order took the Rigby’s side to 188.

Iqbal Patel took 5-42 for Walkden.

In reply, Bradshaw tore apart the hosts batting to win in 39.2 overs with Steve Foster 4-45 and Saeed Anwar Jnr taking 3-20.

In the battle at the bottom, Tonge came out on top beating Eagley by seven wickets. Danny Counsell was not out on 34 as Eagley scored 168 off their 50 overs with Chris McGuinness taking 3-31.

In reply, Chanaka Ruwansiri (64) and Farham Hussain (45) guided Tonge home in 35 overs.

Meanwhile, Westhoughton relied on a partnership of 127 between Atiq Uz Zaman (81 not out) and Qaiser Abbas (56) to wrap up an eight-wicket win against Astley Bridge.

Rick Northrop hit 47 for Astley Bridge but Westhoughton reduced them to 163 all out, with two wickets apiece for Abbas, Kieran Edwards, Matt Fanning and Dan Reeve.

Westhoughton were reduced to 37-2 after 17 overs but Uz-Zaman and Abbas stood firm to wrap up the win.

Little Lever were unable to build on Saturday’s victory over Eagley, going down by eight wickets against Egerton.

Kamran Younis (45) and Josh Gent (26) were the Little Lever batting highlights while Amal Athulathmudali took 3-58 and Amal Dalugoda 7-33.

Athulathmudali followed up his good bowling spell with an unbeaten 68 and Will Halton added 37 to secure the win.

Greenmount sealed a six-wicket win against Heaton after bowling them out for 129. Imran Mirza hit 83 as Mark Stewart took 7-51.

In reply, Ryan Senior (29) and Alex Rodzoch (33) led Greenmount to an easy win.