FOR once we had glorious sunshine on both days last weekend and some good cricket to match.

On Saturday my game at Heaton saw some big hitting from opponents Farnworth Social Circle, who scored 266 from their 50 overs with Ryan Ayres scoring a century.

Heaton ,in reply, got to 209 before they were all out. How nice it was to see Jess Bradley be given an opportunity to have a bowl and she took three wickets so well done Jess.

The story of the day came from a colleague with a hat-trick ball that wasn’t.

Imagine the bowler's delight when, on a hat-trick, he saw the ball hit the stumps.

Jubilation suddenly became stares of disbelief when it was realised the bails hadn’t been removed.

In order for the wicket to be down either bail must be completely removed from the top of the stumps. As this didn’t happen, the batsman had a reprieve and there was no hat-trick, much to the bowler’s dismay.

On Sunday, I was at Heaton who entertained Farnworth Social Circle and more big hitting saw FSC score 266 off their 50 overs and Heaton gave a good chase scoring 209.

It was also the finals of the Dixon T20 competition at Westhoughton and I was only able to watch the final, which was another big-hitting affair, with the Farnworth batsmen taking 28 off Kearsley's last over to reach 171.

Farnworth’s professional Kamran Younis scored 96. In reply, Kearsley got to 162-8.

They kept pace with Farnworth’s innings some of the way and gradually built their innings.

But an excellent catch from Ross Sutton, who caught the Kearsley professional one handed, seemed to turn the game.

Kearsley found it a little too much in the end when needing 15 off the last over, in spite of being given six runs for Farnworth’s slow over rate – teams have one hour 15 minutes to start the 20th over in.

It was a worthy final for a good competition which spectators have enjoyed watching.

Professionals were allowed to play this year in our competition but aren’t in the next round, which will be the Lancashire area final.