WALSHAW consolidated their position at the league summit by demolishing second-placed Atherton and condemning them to their first defeat of the season.

Robin Faulkner led the way with a well-crafted 77, aided by strong performances from Liam Riley, 42 and Jonathan Fielding, 47, as the home side racked up a mighty total of 225-8. David Charlson took four wickets for 89 runs for Atherton.

The visitors then collapsed to a miserable 57 all out, only last man out Rob Clews putting up any resistance with a spirited 23.

Fielding did most of the damage, taking 5-27, but it would be tough to beat the figures of Brett Collins, who took four wickets for just two runs in his nine overs.

Third-placed Spring View failed to take advantage of Atherton's heavy defeat as they slipped up at Darcy Lever.

Batting first, they could only muster 182 all out, with Chris Rudd and Nigel Geary top scoring on 49 and 39 respectively in the face of fine bowling from Yasir Bashir, 7-48.

Lever reached their target with three wickets in hand thanks to Bashir's 68 and an impressive 60 from Nilish Patel. Andy Fox, with 3-76, was the pick of the Spring View attack.

In fact, out of the five teams below Walshaw in the table, only Little Hulton managed a victory in their reduced overs clash with Golborne.

Ijaz Mahmood was the thorn in Golborne's side, first adding 47 runs to Ashley Perry's 97 to help his side to 216-7, then reducing the reply to 195 all out by taking 6-63. Graham Marston was the pick of the Golborne batting, scoring 43.

It was proving a day of upsets as third-bottom Adlington ran out comfortable 69-run victors over Astley and Tyldesley.

Matthew Taylor was their star performer, knocking a commanding 74 runs to help his side to 176-7, before taking three wickets for 45 runs as A&T only managed 107 all out, Simon Nicklin leading the run chase with 24.

Rock bottom Daisy Hill failed to break their duck with a first win of the season as Blackrod ran out six-wicket winners.

Neil Bannister, 51 and Howard Brooks, 32, steered the home side to 150 all out despite David Morris disrupting their innings by taking four wickets fo 55 runs.

Duncan Brooks fought hard to curtail Blackrod's reply, taking 2-24. But Morris' century was enough to see his side home comfortably on 155-4.

Elton lost two wickets in their first over as their run chase fell well short at Lostock.

Chris Hall's excellent figures of 6-30 were not enough to stop Lostock finishing all out on 116, Yasser Khan top scoring with 46. And Rehman Shah limited the Elton reply to just 66 all out by taking 5-30, while Phil Hall also bowled well to score 4-12.

Standish reached their victory target with five wickets to spare after Clifton, boosted by David Parkinson's 53, rattled up 168-6 under pressure from Arindam Sarkar, 3-52.

Sarkar went on to make 87 and Stephen Knowles 30 as Standish cruised to 169-5. Andrew Griffiths took 2-40.