A DIFFERENT name – Horwich – appears on the Anthony Axford Indoor Cricket Trophy this year after Farnworth Social Circle’s reign of four consecutive wins finally came to an end.

The holders were beaten in the semi-final by Horwich in a passionate and hard-fought match in which their target was never likely to prove enough.

Horwich won the toss and put Social Circle in to bat and they were all out for 73 with one ball left to face.

Top scorer for the Farnworth side was Connor Thomson with 20 while the pick of the bowlers for Horwich was Lewis Haydock with 3-21 off his three overs.

In reply, Horwich chased down the total in 7.3 overs without losing a wicket, Tom Billington top-scoring with 25 while Dean Morris contributed 23.

The second semi-final saw a nail-biting finish between Heaton and Westhoughton, a match decided by who had lost the fewer wickets.

After 12 overs the match ended in a draw, with both teams scoring 104, but Westhoughton having lost five and Heaton just three it was they who went through to the final.

Heaton had batted first and Oliver Sutcliffe top-scored with 30, supported by 25 not out from Salik Rasheed.

In reply, Westhoughton reached the last over needing seven to win.

Their top-scorer, Charlie Honour, was left to face the last two balls needing to score one run for victory but good fielding and accurate bowling prevented this and Honour finished on 31 not out.

In the final Horwich proved far too strong for Heaton who seemed unable to capture the form they had shown in earlier matches and, batting first, were all out for 42 from 10.2 overs.

Run outs were their main method of dismissal as they tried to force the pace but there was also a man-of-the-match performance by Danny Higham of Horwich who took three wickets for seven runs off his three overs.

In reply, Horwich won comfortably, scoring the winning runs inside five overs without losing a wicket, something which was a feature of three of the four games they played on their way to the trophy, with only Tonge able to collect any wickets against them.

Horwich will now go onto to represent Bolton in the Lancashire area finals, which are usually held in December.

Last year’s winners, Farnworth Social Circle, have made it through to represent Lancashire in the next stage of the national competition.