WESTHOUGHTON and Farnworth Social Circle are setting the pace in the Bolton League second XI Premiership with both clubs making it three wins out of three last weekend.

Westhoughton won a thrilling game against Bradshaw by just two wickets after seemingly looking like coasting home at one point in their innings.

Chasing 106, they got off to a great start with Jamie McAndrew and Kai Hodgkiss adding 54 for the first wicket, but then Ian Ross got among the wickets and they suffered something of a collapse.

Ross took 6-40 but Malcolm Strong and Oliver Dixon managed to eke out the winning runs.

Bradshaw's innings had never really got going and but for a vital 35 from Chris McGuiness they could have been far worse as Strong collected 3-20 to help bowl them out for 105.

Social enjoyed a more comfortable win as they beat Astley Bridge by 102 runs after a slight rain delay.

Chasing a revised target of 223, Bridge could only manage 121-7 despite Adnaan Bapu and Alex Lowe each making 31 as Joshua Roscoe took 3-34.

The Farnworth innings of 238-5 had earlier been built up on good knocks from Christian Walsh 67, Jamie Bohannon 58 and Matthew Knight 57 not out as the middle order dominated the bowling.

Heaton are close behind having recorded their second win out of three with a comprehensive nine-wicket victory over Farnworth.

The Farnworth batsmen never got going against a fine spell from Jacob Whittaker, who took 5-19 and helped dismiss them for just 65, with only Lee Bridge 19 Peter Eccles and Victor Walcott showing much resistance.

Heaton then made short work of their target with Jack Kelly, Ryan Tierney and Nigel Duxbury all chipping in usefully.

It was a similar story at Vicarage Road where Blackrod were soundly beaten by seven wickets by champions Horwich RMI.

Batting first they fared even worse than Farnworth as they could only muster a very disappointing 48 all out – a score that would have been much worse but for Dave Swindlehurst making 25.

Slow left armers Andy Taylor (3-19) and Jack Berry (3-11) did the bulk of the damage for RMI. Horwich then raced to their target in just nine overs led by a rapid 20 from Sam Howell.

Darcy Lever and Eagley are leading the way in the Association Division with both achieving relatively comfortable wins.

Darcy produced a great batting display to chase down a target of 181 at Atherton with some time to spare.

Wayne Hopkinson's unbeaten 77 anchored the chase with great support coming from Adeel Hanif (40) and Toseef Hanif (24).

Adeel had also been prominent with the ball as Atherton built up their total of 180-7 as he collected 3-35 with Wasim Abbas top scoring on 73 aided by a useful 24 from Paul Woodend.

Eagley enjoyed a six-wicket victory over Little Lever chasing a revised target of 93 having earlier bowled the villagers out for exactly 100.

Sam Vose (22) and Joseph Rushton (21) made useful scores but the rest of the order struggled against the bowling of Jonathon Birchall, who took 4-27, and Tom Mitchell with 3-29.

Despite Jon Pendlebury grabbing 3-32, Yahya Khojbalwala, with 34, helped see his side home.

Adlington secured an 87-run victory over Golborne after making the top score of the day in this division with 226-7.

Liam Kane was unlucky to be dismissed just short of his century as he fell for a fine 97, but it was his stand of 165 with Tom Shovelton (61) which set up their powerful position despite Joe Peacock taking 4-21.

Peacock also starred with bat making 36 as he and Connor Naughton (26) got the reply off to a solid start, but the introduction of Zac Green and Ruth Leece changed the innings as wickets tumbled quickly.

Green ended up with a fine 5-35 and Leece 3-43.

Tonge enjoyed a welcome four-wicket win against Walkden as they chased down a revised target of 132 after rain had interfered.

Walkden went in first and, despite 46 from Andrew Coop and Thomas Gaskell making 39, struggled to 143 all out with no other batsman in double figures.

Lloyd Sayers, with a fine spell of 5-31, led the Tonge bowlers with the other wickets spread about.

Josh Wilson tried hard to derail the chase with 3-36 but Danny Holt with 58 and Chris Worrall's unbeaten 36 saw Tonge to the target.

Little Hulton defeated Lostock by 59 runs at Chew Moor in the day's other game after recovering from the loss of two early wickets.

Roger Kumah and Rory McIntyre then joined forces to add 130 for the third wicket and help set up a total of 220-8 with Kumah making 53 and McIntyre 74 as Darren Parr took 3-44.

The Lostock reply was soon in some disarray as Ian Lee took 4-15 to leave them teetering on 77-8 before a late fightback by Matthew Taylor (48) and Zayn Chaudray (22) helped them up to a more respectable 161 all out.