FARNWORTH Social Circle extended their lead at the top of the Bolton League Second XI Premiership courtesy of an emphatic win against second-placed Astley Bridge last weekend.

Batting first they once again rattled up a big score led by a century opening stand between Liam Ashworth, who made 35, and Stephen French, who went on to make a superb 103. French also added 154 with Tim Barrow (82) as Social posted 282-3.

Bridge never threatened to chase down the target with only a late 36 not out from Jimmy Dakri getting them up to 125 as Joshua Roscoe took 5-76.

Top score of the day though was made by Darcy Lever who hit 319-9 against Westhoughton to set up a 104-run win.

Nav Khan (73) and Mohammed Hussain (47) set the tempo, adding more than 100 runs for the first wicket, then Bilal Khan joined in the fun making 58 as both Jamie Ramwell and Mason McKenna took three wickets.

Ian Pilkington played something of a lone hand in the reply making a superb 113 off 117 balls but without much support other than Chris Trow’s 28 as Westhoughton closed on 215-8.

Heaton were another emphatic winner as they enjoyed a 114-run triumph against Farnworth, having made 261-8 batting first.

Gary Garner led the way with a fine 83, while Jake Corrigan added 53 before Farnworth found batting a trickier proposition in the run chase.

Martin Axford battled to 30 but without much support as Sur Varsani led the bowlers, taking 3-12, and Farnworth were dismissed for 147 in reply.

Kearsley and Little Hulton shared 450 runs at Springfield Road before the home side emerged on top by a margin of 49 runs.

The villagers made a great effort to chase down 255 but were eventually all out on 205. Rory McIntyre made 60, Brian Kelly 25 and Ian Lee 21no but Misbah Uddin’s 3-31 helped thwart their efforts.

Earlier Neil Thompson (58), Joe Capstick (67) and Stephen Pellowe (55no) had been instrumental in leading Kearsley to a total of 254-6.

Horwich RMI moved level with Bradshaw in third place after beating their hosts by 31 runs at The Rigbys.

Kaleem Ashgar (4-23) and Andy Taylor (4-33) were the main reasons Bradshaw were unable to chase down 208 despite the efforts of Nick Palmer (58) and Ryan Garner (38) as they were restricted to 176-9.

The RMI innings had been pretty much a solo effort as Adam Knowles made a terrific 100 with the next highest contribution being 19. Tom de Gelder led the Bradshaw bowling efforts with 3-50 as RMI made 207-7.

Eagley returned to the top of the Association Section after a hard-fought victory over Golborne with just 12 runs separating the sides at the end of the game.

Batting first, they were restricted to 169-9 by the bowling of Ben Lyon (4-51) and George Corfield (3-25) despite the efforts of Martin Eccles (64no) and Stu Leigh (31) in particular.

Jamie Foster led the chase with 56 aided by Tom Owen (22) but four wickets each from Will Owen and Tom Mitchell saw them end just short on 157 all out.

Adlington kept up their recent good form as they too came out on top in a close game, beating Daisy Hill by just 15 runs.

Batting first, they relied on the efforts of Alan Butterworth, who hit 33, and 25 each from Andrew Chamberlain, Leon Morris and Ryan Kane to post a total of 151-6 with Kieran Farrell taking 3-35.

Morris then chipped in with the ball, taking 3-47 and Zac Green took 3-34 to help put Daisy out for 136 in reply despite the best efforts of Mayank Patel and Brett Farnworth who each made 28 and Mike Leeming (25).

Lostock slumped to a disappointing defeat at Castle Hill where Tonge defeated them by five wickets.

Batting first, they collapsed to a meagre 69 all out against some fine bowling from Hasib Patel (4-17) and George Leather (3-10).

Although they managed to hit back, taking five wickets, Patel completed a good personal effort by making an unbeaten 41 to see the home side to their win.

Blackrod and Atherton fought out a close game at Vicarage Road before the visitors eventually won through by four wickets.

Rob Harper led the chase for Atherton making 40 together with Stefan Holmes, who hit 25, as they passed their target of 133 with six wickets down, Owen Moss being the pick of the bowlers with 3-17.

Blackrod’s total of 132 was a team effort with no fewer than five men making scores over 20 – Chris Readey and Andy Gregory top scoring on 27 – but a spell of 4-38 from Ellis Mort and 3-16 from Holmes restricted them to 132 all out.

The final game was a real thriller with Walkden chasing down Little Lever’s 226-7 for the loss of just five wickets.

Despite losing a couple of early wickets, Andrew Coop, with 60, Mo Razzaq (47) and Mason Sutherland (24) helped set up the successful chase for Walkden.

Razzaq had also starred with the ball taking 3-16 to help restrict Lever to 226-7, a total that owed much to the efforts of Adam Clark (53), Marcus Barlow (51), Joseph Brookes (24) and Bob Waller (23).