By Karen Knott

ATHERTON became the first club from the now suspended Bolton Association to win a game in the Bolton League Indoor Tournament.

Following defeats for Daisy Hill and Blackrod on the opening day of this year's competition a week earlier, fellow former Association clubs who have joined the League this year – Lostock and Darcy Lever – also lost on Sunday.

But Atherton, the only other ex-Association club to take part in the competition which has expanded to accommodate 16 teams this year, defeated Tonge to progress into the next round.

They will be joined by Kearsley, Walkden and Farnworth who beat Little Lever, Lostock and Darcy Lever, respectively.

Sunday's action at Bolton School started with a relatively young Tonge batting first and some tight bowling by Atherton’s Paul Walsh – who took 1-9 from his three overs – and Matthew Lilley, 2-10 from his three, restricted them to 52-4 from 12 overs.

Captain Chris McGuiness top scored with 20.

In reply, Atherton comfortably passed Tonge’s score, reaching 54 from 7.1 overs without losing a wicket.

Top scorer for Atherton was Callum Barlow with 26 not out.

That was followed by a very entertaining and high scoring game between Kearsley and Little Lever.

Kearsley batted first and scored 123-3 with Charlie Dorsey leading the way with 28 not out followed by good innings from Grant Cordin, 25 not out, and Darren Whittle who scored 21.

While Josh Gent and Saj Mammood took a wicket each, it was Josh Hill who the Kearsley batsmen found most difficult to score off with only 14 runs coming from his three overs.

In reply, Little Lever got off to a bad start when Jon Kerrigan was bowled first ball of the match, and the second wicket – that of Josh Hill – fell at four.

However, a stand of 66 runs saw Little Lever edge closer to Kearsley's score thanks to the efforts of Gent and Ayaz Hanif. Little Lever needed 30 off the last two overs and with 13 runs coming from the 11th over it was set up for a potentially dramatic finish.

It wasn't to be though as both Gent and Hanif were run out, ending Little Lever's run chase 11 runs short.

In the third third game of the day some fine bowling and all-round fielding by Walkden, which included a great one-handed catch from Jack Duffy, saw them dismiss Lostock for 42 in the 10th over.

Tom Senior played a captain's innings, batting throughout and making 16, while wickets fell around him.

In reply Hassain Altaf top-scored with 24 not out as Walkden achieved their target in 5.5 overs.

The final game of the day saw Farnworth play Darcy Lever who won the toss and batted first.

They scored 46 with Dominic Gavin top scoring with 15.

In reply, Farnworth were made to fight hard in the early overs, through some good bowling by Gavin and Andrew Patel.

However, it was Iain McLellan who saw finally saw Farnworth home, top scoring with 12 not out.

The quarter-finals take place on Sunday. The draw is: 12.30pm Atherton v Walkden, 1.45pm Horwich v Bradshaw, 3pm Eagley v Kearsley, 4.15pm FSC v Farnworth.