KEARSLEY skipper Grant Cordin is calling for consistency after his side comfortably beat early pace-setters Bradshaw to rise to second in the Premiership table.

Fielding first, the Springfield Road outfit bowled their hosts out for 102 as Dave Mather (5-34) and Devendra Bundela (3-22) impressed with the ball.

Chris Baxendale (31no) and Bundela (52no) shone with the bat in reply as Kearsley cruised to a nine-wicket win.

“We have had some really good batting performances this season and we both wanted to bat first,” Cordin said.

“They won the toss and batted but we did very well to bowl them out for 102. We managed to chase the score with the loss of only one wicket which got us the bonus point which was pleasing.

“It’s a long season so anything can happen. There is not going to be a runaway leader this year and everyone is going to lose at some point.

“We just have to make sure we make it very difficult to beat us. It will be about a matter of consistency.”

Farnworth leapfrogged Bradshaw into top spot with victory at home to Lostock.

Matthew Leach hit an unbeaten 46 for the visitors as they opened the batting. Nick Jeffs also scored 35, but his side were bowled out for 159 – Dan Higham and Kamran Younas the pick of the bowlers taking three wickets apiece.

Jon Kerrigan (18) and Ross Sutton (27) put on a 53-run opening-wicket partnership in reply, before Shaquille Cumberbatch (58no) and Imran Mirza (34) saw off the target with seven wickets to spare.

Ryan Ayres knocked a century as Farnworth Social Circle won away at Heaton.

The Piggott Park side were struggling on 54-4 until Ayres stepped up to knock 101 not out off 124 balls.

Chris Taylor also scored 78 and skipper Tim Barrow a vital 27 not out as they posted 266-5.

Raheel Majeed was the only bowler of note taking 3-86, before he turned his hand to batting and struck 65.

Joe Ball added 40 but Richard Dempster (3-68) and Jess Bradley (3-42) spearheaded the bowling attack which dismissed Heaton for 209.

Walkden made it four wins in a row with victory at Horwich.

Asif Zakir (42) and Rafal Afridi (39) both scored high as Walkden were bowled out for 182.

Liam Bones (5-62) and Fazil Hassan (3-31) did the damage with the ball.

Horwich skipper Phil Ingram top scored with 36 in reply but his side showed little resistance to the bowling of Sayed Shah (4-38) and Jonathan Fowler (3-22) as they fell 49 runs short of the target.

Westhoughton avoided a scare by narrowly beating bottom side Eagley.

The Dunscar outfit got their hosts out for 141 thanks to impressive bowling from professional Agha Salman (5-26).

Mark Atherton (30) and Oliver Newby (39) were the only batsmen of note.

Salman knocked 38 with the bat but the chase never looked likely to happen as Qaiser Abbas (7-44) and Newby (3-30) tore through the batting line-up for 112 runs.

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A GAMBLE by Tonge captain Danny Delvard paid dividends on Saturday as they ended a four-year wait for back-to-back wins.

Away at Darcy Lever, Delvard won the toss and opted to bat first – going against his usual tactics.

But the decision began to bare fruit when Sam Hardman hit 14 boundaries on his way to 90, and professional Tilaksha Malshan – who has signed on as pro for the next two years – scored 101.

The visitors ran up a tally of 292-8 with the bat – their highest score in years.

Shaukat Patel was the only bowler of note taking 3-76.

Freddie Oliver hit 54 in reply and Scott Burns added 35 but Tonge’s bowling attack – led by the impressive Malshan (6-53) – had Darcy dismissed 116 runs short of the target.

“We broke the mould and elected to bat first,” said Delvard. “It was a lovely day so I put faith in the batsmen and they did the business getting 292 on the board.

“I have been coming under a bit of pressure from our batsmen so we decided if we won the toss we would have a bat first, which is unusual for us because our strength lies in our bowling.

“Our pro Malshan got a century and Sam Hardman, who we got from Heaton, got 90. They were the mainstays of our innings and provided us with the platform to go on and win.

“We gave Atherton a pasting last week and the week before that we bowled Adlington out for 102. Our Achilles heel that week was our batting but that seems to be changing now.”

Tonge are up to sixth in the table after picking up their third win of the campaign, which is two more victories than they got in the entire season last year.

One major change has been the arrival of professional Malshan, who has drawn the highest of praise from his skipper.

“It is no surprise that we are creeping up,” Delvard added. “We have got strength in depth in the squad now.

“We celebrated long into the night last week and we celebrated long into the night again on Saturday, but we are not getting giddy, we can still finish top or we could finish bottom, we just have to take it game by game.

“I must say, Malshan has been fantastic and a model professional since he has been over here.

"He is only 22-year-old but is a massive part of the team spirit. He is always around the club socialising with the lads.

Meanwhile, Atherton returned to the top of the table after beating Astley Bridge by six wickets.

Nick Davies scored 38 and Andrew Mills knocked 29 as the Sharples Park side put on a total of 136 before they were bowled out.

Muhammad Baig (5-53) and Josh Gilluley (3-45) did the damage with the ball.

Atherton opener David Tantsis-Hall started the second innings with a strong knock of 57.

Jack Welsh followed it up with a score of 24 as the chase was completed with six wickets to spare.

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BLACKROD’s Thushendra De Zoysa and Daisy Hill’s Neil Tong both bowled nine-wicket hauls as they helped their respective sides to victory on Saturday.

The Vicarage Road side, facing league-leaders Adlington, batted first with De Zoysa the highest scorer with 26.

However, his team-mates could not deal with the impressive Majid Majeed, who took seven victims in return for 48 runs.

Blackrod were in a spot of bother when bowled out for 91, but De Zoysa dug them out of a hole producing magnificent bowling figures of 9-28.

Majeed top scored with 22 but Adlington were bowled out for 71 – 20 runs short of the target.

Daisy Hill chased down a 203-run target to beat Little Hulton.

Little Hulton captain Suleman Muhammad and fellow opener Asim Bhatti both knocked 40 as they started the innings with an 89-run partnership.

Tajamul Khan added 54 in the middle order before Arshad Khan chipped in with 26 late on to post 203.

Tong ended with figures of 9-89 after a magnificent performance.

Daisy professional Adnan Raees knocked 66 in reply while Mike Chilton added 55 as the chase was completed with two wickets and four overs to spare.

At the foot of the table, Golborne picked up their first win of the season by beating Little Lever.

The Victory Road outfit struggled from the off to deal with the fine bowling of Jake Waterworth who took 6-20.

Shahid Mahboob chipped in with 3-23 as Golborne bowled their visitors all out for 85 – Anthony Hilton was the only batsman of note scoring 28.

Wicketkeeper Ciaran Vasey opened the reply scoring with 48 as the Simpsons Park outfit completed the chase with four wickets to spare.

Adil Nisar was the pick of the bowlers taking 3-43.

Golborne remain bottom, 10 points behind second-bottom Little Lever.

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RESULTS

Bolton League

Premiership Division

Bradshaw 102, Kearsley 107-1. Kearsley won by 9 wkts.

Farnworth 159-3, Lostock 158-9. Farnworth won by 7 wkts.

Heaton 209, Farnworth Social Circle 266-5. Farnworth Social Circle won by 57 runs.

Horwich 133, Walkden 182. Walkden won by 49 runs.

Westhoughton 141, Eagley 112. Westhoughton won by 29 runs.

Bolton League

Association Division

Adlington 71, Blackrod 91. Blackrod won by 20 runs.

Atherton 140-4, Astley Bridge 136. Atherton won by 6 wkts.

Darcy Lever 176, Tonge 292-8. Tonge won by 116 runs.

Golborne 88-6, Little Lever 85. Golborne won by 4 wkts

Little Hulton 203, Daisy Hill 206-8. Daisy Hill won by two wkts.