LEAGUE leaders Farnworth Social Circle are on a list of five clubs that basement side Tonge are on the hunt for this season.

After rain forced all matches in the Bolton League to be abandoned on Saturday, Tonge versus Little Lever was the only match to get underway.

Adam Carter, who fell five runs short of his century last week, was the top performer for Little Lever as he knocked 31 with the bat.

Simon Anderton also added 19 but fine bowling from Ather Abid (3-26), Connor Lord (2-35) and Cory Schofield (2-28) had the visitors rattled on 90-7 inside 25 overs.

But then the rain fell and Tonge's strong position meant nothing as the sides had to settle for a share of the points.

Tonge's new skipper Danny Delvard has helped fill his side with hope and optimism as they continue to search for their first league victory in almost two years.

And the club have drawn up a five-strong plan of sides they would like to beat this year which includes league leaders Farnworth Social Circle.

“We have identified five teams which we could beat by the end of the season,” Delvard said. “Darcy Lever was one of those teams but they beat us by five runs in the T20.

“Little Lever was another one and we were in a very strong position on Saturday until it was abandoned.

“Astley Bridge and Atherton are two others and the final one, believe it or not, is Farnworth Social Circle.

“There is nothing like a David-and-Goliath clash. They are there to be beaten so why can't we beat them? Every team is there to be beaten.

“When we played Farnworth, who have some really strong batters, we had them at 105-5 at one stage and if we continued to bowl as we did we could have got a result.

“They ended up battering us in the end but at that point there you could see our young team performing really well.”

After 15 years out of the game Delvard came out of retirement to help out the Bolton League's basement club who, at the beginning of the campaign, struggled to field 11 players.

But the skipper believes his side is starting to turn the corner as he builds a squad around his talented young bowlers.

He added: “We are getting a consistent team out now and the atmosphere around the place is greater than it has been.

“Taking over as first-team captain has been fine, to be honest. I have not played for 15 years but I came out of retirement to help the second team and then I was asked to take over in the first team.

“I sat down with Paul Schofield (club chairman) at the beginning of the season and we set out a strategy to take this club forwards.

“We want to build the side around a cohort of young bowlers. Each week the bowlers are improving and we believe that if they continue to improve then we could become a really good side.”