FRIDAY saw the last match in the Bolton & Bury Interleague matches take place at Elton Vale.

After a wet week where several matches in both towns had to be abandoned due to storms, it was good to have glorious sunshine in which to sit and enjoy yet another magnificent display of top-notch rounders.

Bury opened the innings with steady batting, losing just one batter first time round. However, things were to go downhill from there.

A further five batters were dismissed in the next round, leaving just five batters and a score of 28.

Magnificent all-round fielding from the Bolton girls left just one batter to go round for the fourth time, and Bury ended the very short innings with a score of just 43.

Bolton were naturally hoping to notch up a better score in their first innings. It didn’t look too promising when Bury managed to dismiss six batters after two rounds, leaving the remaining players a hard task.

However, top scorer Sharron Buller (26), closely followed by Annie Truffas (24), saw Bolton almost double Bury’s score, with 80 points.

Bury fared much better in their second innings, with two players getting double figures – 11 for Kath Bentley and 19 for Deb Pierce.

It is fair to say that Bolton gave away more points than they should have, and enabled a stronger Bury side to score an innings total of 71, finishing on 114.

Bolton only had to score 35 points for a win, and were once again confident when coming on to bat. However, once again Bury managed to dismiss five players after just two rounds, including first innings’ top scorer Sharron Buller.

Bury battled hard to keep the score down, but Bolton scored an innings total of 56, taking the match total to 136.

A reminder to all that matches in August will start at 6.45pm. A further reminder that when the weather is stormy, the only person able to decide if a game goes ahead, or is abandoned, is the referee.

Teams must turn up prepared to play or else they will have been deemed to have conceded the match.

Finally, keep a look out for the collective registration forms which will be posted at the beginning of August.