FARNWORTH Social Circle were crowned winners of the Anthony Axford Indoor Trophy on Sunday when they beat Horwich by 85 runs in the final.

A great performance by man-of-the-match Ryan Ayres with both bat and ball was key to the title victory which means Social Circle will now go on to represent the Bolton League in the Lancashire area finals at Old Trafford next January .

Horwich won the toss and elected to field and had Social Circle reeling at 8-3 when Ayres went in to bat at Bolton School.

He steered his side to a total of 106, scoring 51 before being run out off the last ball of the innings.

In reply, Horwich had no answer to his bowling and fine catching by his team-mates, taking 4-9 in two and a half overs before Horwich were dismissed for 21.

The champagne moment of the match was a brilliant catch by Andrew Lane to take the wicket of Horwich danger man Phil Ingram which saw the Social Circle man leap into the air and palm the ball down before holding it.

Earlier in the day, Social Circle were indebted to Ayres again in their semi-final victory over Kearsley.

The new signing from Walkden scored 46 not out to chase down Kearsley's 104-4.

There were also important contributions of 31 not out from captain Darren Whittle and 25 not out from Mohammed Jameel.

With Social Circle losing two wickets for 25, Ayres and David Tonge put on a steady partnership when the third wicket fell at 75 followed quickly by the fourth.

Tonge was run out with the score on 90 and Ayres managed to get his side into the final with three balls to spare.

The second semi-final was a hard-fought, nail-biting match.

Horwich won the toss and decided to field and new signing Liam Bones took two early wickets on his way to finishing with 2-15.

Walkden’s total score reached 89 largely thanks to an innings of 48 by Rashid Altaf, before he was run out in the last over.

In reply, Horwich lost the early wicket of Matthew Morris with the score on nine but Joseph Baldwin steadied the ship and with the last over looming and only himself able to face the bowling he needed nine runs off the last over bowled by Taylor Heyes.

No runs were scored off the first three balls so the nine runs had to come off the next three.

Baldwin was up to the task and cool placing of the ball got the nine runs to send his team into the final, leaving him on 35 not out.

Finals day results

Semi-finals: FSC 105-5 beat Kearsley 104-4 and Horwich 90-5 beat Walkden 89-6.

Final: Farnworth Social Circle 106-5 beat Horwich 21-6.

Man of the match: Ryan Ayres with 51 and 4-9.