HORWICH came mightily close to providing the shock of the season so far as they gave unbeaten Farnworth a massive scare.

Liam Bones, who has 35 wickets to his name this season, bowled a five-wicket haul for 45 runs as Farnworth were bowled out for 85, Ross Sutton top scoring with 35.

Sub professional Johann Smit also took 3-12 and Phil Ingram claimed a single wicket which was arguably the most crucial – dismissing the dangerous Adil Nisar for only two runs.

The Lavender Road outfit were on the back foot but Imran Mirza turned the screw with the ball taking four wickets for 19 runs as Horwich made a disastrous start, slumping to 5-4.

Smit steadied the ship in the middle order with a knock of 25 but Nisar made up for his poor batting performance by taking 4-27 as Horwich were bowled out for 58.

Farnworth skipper Simon Booth said: “Of course we were worried, it was a tough wicket to play on.

“Our score should have been a lot less if it wasn't for Ian McLellan and Victor Walcott putting on about 30 for the last-wicket, we could have been out for around 50.

“When we went in after our innings we all said we have to make 85 enough to win the game.

"The only way to do that was to start really well with the ball.

“We switched things about a bit. Imran Mirza and Adil Nisar don't usually bowl that early but we thought with the score being so low we needed to bowl at them straight.

“The switch probably won us the game in the end. We always believed we could come back into the game and they were really struggling at 5-4 after the start we made.”

Farnworth remain nine points behind local rivals and league leaders Farnworth Social Circle who secured a comfortable victory against Eagley.

Skipper Asif Bhojani hit 90 for the Dunscar side, but his team-mates failed to deal with the fine bowling of Dave Mather (6-81) as Eagley were bowled out for 169.

David Tonge (33), Jake Scicluna (34) and Ryan Ayres (27) all shone with the bat in reply, while Eagley gave away 43 extras as the Piggott Park outfit reached their target with five wickets to spare.

Meanwhile, Walkden remain third as they breezed to a nine-wicket victory at home to Astley Bridge.

Syd De Silva top scored for the visitors with 46 and David Cryer chipped in with 30, but a mean bowling attack led by Tahir Maqsood (5-49) and Jonathan Fowler (4-35) had Astley Bridge bowled out for 133.

The league's top run scorer Aiden Markram starred in reply, scoring 73 not out as he took his seasonal tally up to 859 runs.

Taylor Hayes and Sayed Shah also knocked 26 each as the target was reached inside 20 overs.