LITTLE Lever showed their Bolton Cricket League title credentials with a 23-run victory against Westhoughton.

Play finally got underway at 1.40pm and opener Harvey Wilson started well with 66 while Simon Anderton added 45 as Little Lever closed on 207-7.

Westhoughton’s reply was going strong at 148-3 after 32 overs but two wickets in two balls of Rob Brown (64) and Ian Parkinson (45) changed the game. Little Lever won with nine balls left as professional Kamran Younis took 5-55.

The victory extended their lead at the top of the table to 15 points as closest rivals Egerton lost out to Farnworth by five wickets.

Egerton’s professional Amal Athulathmudali and Paul Stafford both shared top scores of 45 in a total of 195-9.

Farnworth pro Anwar Ul Haq led by example with 6-50.

He then hit 62 and his 105 partnership with David Morris (42) set up the victory.

Elsewhere, Bradshaw moved into the top four with a 99-run win against Farnworth Social Circle.

Opener Mike Hudson set the tone with 52 and then Anthony Harris added 36 as they set a total of 193 in 50 overs. Josh Bohannon took 3-59.

Sheylam Pillay hit the highest score for Farnworth but the bowling duo of Steve Foster (5-53) and Saeed Anwar Junior (5-36) combined well to bowl the visitors out in 27.4 overs.

Meanwhile, Adam Street produced a man-of-the-match display in helping mid-table Horwich to a 44-run victory over Tonge.

He hit 28 in Horwich’s 127 while Neil Tong was the pick of the bowlers with 6-62.

In reply, Street tore into the Tonge batting line-up with 5-25 as the hosts were all out 83 althought Nigel Partington put up some resistance with 25.

Greenmount raced to a convincing win over Astley Bridge with eight wickets to spare.

Andy Northrop (49) and Rick Northrop (45) played key roles as Astley Bridge set a total of 202-8 with Phil Heaton taking 6-62.

Andy Kerr was not out on 85 while he and Phil Ingram (66) enjoyed an opening partnership of 126.

In the bottom-half of the table, Heaton took the bragging rights with a five wicket win over Kearsley.

Nazir Hamed (24) and Rick Parker (26) set up the Kearsley total of 135 all out while Heaton pro Tahir Maqsood took 5-34.

Heaton were struggling at 28-3 but Matt Fray (50) and Tom Liversedge (49) starred in the win.

Michael O’Rourke’s 43 was the highlight of Eagley’s innings of 113 all out with Usman Tariq taking (6-32).

But, Walkden only lost two wickets in pursuit of victory with Tariq (67 not out) and Liam Jackson (39 not out) guiding them home with 27 overs left.