KEARSLEY captain Grant Cordin hailed Chris Baxendale’s bowl-out winning strike as “the best googly he had ever seen” after his side booked their place in the Peter Stafford Trophy semi-final.

Walkden, Heaton and Daisy Hill also progressed to the last four after winning their respective quarter-final ties.

Rain interrupted all four clashes on Sunday but Kearsley’s match with Horwich was unable to continue beyond the first innings.

The Recreation Ground outfit had posted 178-5 before weather halted play.

The game went to a bowl-out which Kearsley won 3-2 thanks to Danny Robinson, Jordan Thornley and Baxendale all striking with the ball.

Skipper Cordin believes his side are now favourites for the trophy, but he also outlined the league title is still within touching distance after they lost ground on league leaders Farnworth on Saturday.

“A club of Kearsley’s size has gone too long without any silverware and that has to change now,” he said.

“Chris Baxendale bowled an absolute stunner to win it for us. I have never seen a ball like it in my life. It is the best googly I have ever seen.

“If you look at the league table out of the teams that are still in the competition we are the highest placed, so we will probably be seen as the favourites now, but it is not played on paper.

“We slipped up on Saturday but the title is certainly not over either. We still believe we can win the league and we still want to win the league.”

Association Division leaders Daisy Hill are the only second-tier side remaining in the competition after they beat arch-rivals Westhoughton.

In what was the second derby-day delight in as many days for Daisy, Neil Tong starred with the ball, taking 7-77 as the Howfeners were bowled out for 177.

Dan Naylor (37), Rob Brown (35) and Qaiser Abbas (39) all scored high with the bat.

The St James Street outfit were set a revised target of 126 to win and they chased that down inside 20 overs as Adnan Raees hit a half-century and wicketkeeper James Mann scored 48.

Heaton wrapped up back-to-back wins by knocking out Adlington.

Raheel Majeed and Luca Williams-Denton both struck 38 and Gary Garner added 33 as Heaton posted 170-7.

Jack Shovelton was the only bowler of note, taking 3-66.

Will Pacey hit an unbeaten 42 in reply but Adlington were bowled out 21 runs short of their reduced target, mainly thanks to the bowling of Majeed who took 7-41.

Walkden skipper Jonathan Fowler bowled a seven-wicket haul as his side beat Bradshaw.

Tom Liversedge opened with a knock of 35 and Marwan Mohammad added 33 but Fowler’s figures of 7-58 put his side in the driving seat.

Walkden had to chase a revised target of 91, which they achieved with five wickets to spare thanks to Asif Zakir’s unbeaten 42.

Results

Daisy Hill 126-6 Westhoughton 177, Daisy Hill won by 4 wkts.

Heaton 170-7 Adlington 108, Heaton won by 21 runs.

Kearsley dnb Horwich 178-5, Kearsley won 3-2 via bowl-out.

Walkden 94-5 Bradshaw 130, Walkden won by 5 wkts.