FAMILY ties fortuned Farnworth Social Circle on Saturday as skipper Tim Barrow hailed brother Chris Barrow for his performance against Walkden.

The league champions started their title defence with a win but it was far from plain sailing in a rain-reduced 30-over clash.

The Piggot Park side were struggling at first when they opened the batting with a score of 48-4.

But an impressive fifth-wicket partnership of Ryan Ayres (40) and Chris Barrow (84) lifted the total to a final standing of 162-7.

Tahir Maqsood, Jonathan Fowler and Sayed Shah all took two wickets apiece.

Walkden’s sub professional Zain Abbas opened with a knock of 58, alongside Taylor Heyes, who hit 25. Skipper Fowler then added 34 when he turned his hand to the bat.

But tight bowling from Chris Barrow (4-86) and Richard Dempster (4-33) limited Walkden to 147 as the overs expired.

Social Circle skipper Tim Barrow praised his side’s batting display after the game.

“Chris has one of them mind sets where instead of waiting for the bowlers to come for him he sets up and goes for them,” Barrow said.

“More often than not that works for him and he, along with Ryan Ayres, helped to get us out of a little bit of a hole yesterday.

“They put on a 100-run partnership which was great after a bit of a tricky start.

“We said earlier in the year that we have strength in depth all the way through our batting line up and even if you got past Chris Barrow there are good batters behind him.”

Despite victory, Tim Barrow still expects Walkden to be at the top end of the table and to provide a stern test of their title defence.

“You won’t get many tougher opening games to a season than to play Walkden at Walkden,” Barrow added.

“They have got one of the best bowling attacks in the league and it was pretty tense

“We dropped their stand in pro Zain Abbas and other opener Taylor Heyes when they were both on single figures so it was kind of our own doing a little bit that it went to the final few overs.

“It was great to get off to a winning start but they will be up there or there about at the end.”

Elsewhere, Bradshaw continued where they left off in the Peter Stafford Trophy by keeping their 100 per-cent start to the season with a win at home to Lostock.

Phil Dickinson (4-31) and Marwan Mohammad (3-13) impressed with the ball as the visitors were limited to 78-9 inside 25 overs.

Bradshaw made easy work of the reply knocking it off inside 15 overs to the loss of only two wickets – Tom Liversedge (33) and Sachithra Serasinghe (19) doing the damage with the bat.

Liam Bones’ five-wicket haul inspired Horwich to victory at home to Kearsley.

Bones’ figures of 5-22 limited the Springfield Road side to 109-7 from the rain-reduced 25 overs.

Kearsley were really struggling with a score of 23-5 until seventh-placed batsman Mohammed Jameel struck 51 off 43 balls.

Horwich openers Phil Ingram (56) and Tom Billington (47) chased down the target to the loss of only two wickets.

Heaton against Eagley was abandoned without play.

Results

Bradshaw 81-2, Lostock 78-9. Bradshaw won by 8 wkts.

Farnworth 96-6, Westhoughton – did not bat. Match abandoned.

Heaton v Eagley. Match Abandoned.

Horwich 111-2, Kearsley 109-7. Horwich won by 8 wkts.

Walkden 147-8, Farnworth Social Circle 162-7. Farnworth Social Circle won by 15 runs.