Westhoughton remain at the top of the Bolton League, three points ahead of Horwich, after both teams won in the latest round of action.

Westhoughton posted 127 against fourth-placed Farnworth Social Circle, with Chris Barrow taking 4-32.

Circle opening batsman David Tonge hit 34 as his side moved to a handy 66-2, but the remaining batsmen were unable to maintain the momentum and ended nine runs adrift with Matty Morris taking 3-27 and Matt Fanning 3-35.

Tom Billington (45) and Brett Pelser (40) were mainly responsible for Horwich’s 183 against Astley Bridge, with Harsha Rajapaksha taking three wickets.

A half century for Rick Northrop assisted Bridge to 99-5, but Jack Berry took 6-49 as they were dismissed for 160.

Millen Patel in action for Astley Bridge

Millen Patel in action for Astley Bridge

Little Lever are in third place, with Agha Salman hitting an 80-ball century in their 192 against Little Hulton. Tajamul Khan took 5-30.

Khan and Arsjan Javad hit 33 apiece in the reply, but Hulton fell 26 runs short as Curtis Anderton took 3-38 and Salman 3-40.

Tonge are two points outside a top-four Lancashire Knockout place, as Hasib Patel, 46, inspired a recovery from 86-8 to 162 all out against Eagley.

James Richards took 4-32 for Eagley with James Fallows and Adeel Baig sharing the remaining six wickets.

The Eagley innings was the reverse of Tonge’s with Jack Wainman (35) and Louis Signe (32) guiding them to 115-2, before the remaining eight wickets fell for 13 runs to Hashan Dumindu (7-36) and Dave Bath (3-7).

Another team to suffer a collapse late in the innings were Lostock who slid from 68-2 to 130 all out against Blackrod.

Simon Hanson made 44 while Akash Senarathna took 5-53 and Tush De Zoysa 3-29.

Asif Bhojani scored 30 early in Blackrod’s response but it was Zak Burton (59) and Charlie Fletcher (23) who steered them home from a precarious 87-7.

A 70-run partnership between Rizwan Pervez (34) and Tervyn Walcott (36) helped Farnworth to 169 with Saif Ur Rehman taking 4-51 for Atherton and Josh Gilluley 4-36.

Zain Abbas scored 65 for Atherton, who were handily placed at 48-0 and 129-3, but could eventually make only 155 with Gavin Moriah taking 3-40 and Dan Higham 3-36.

Darcy Lever made 181 against Kearsley, thanks in the main to a century partnership between Hafeez Mohammad (70) and Gareth Hopkinson (46). Kearsley’s Dave Mather took 4-49.

Joe Capstick hit a half century for Kearsley and Imran Sadiq (3-42) and Abdullah Ishaq (3-47) were the pick of Darcy’s bowlers.

With two balls remaining, and two required for victory Kearsley’s professional Cameron Murray was 35 not out and on strike, but a serious knee injury put him out of the game giving Darcy victory by one run.

On Sunday, Westhoughton progressed to the regional finals of the National T20 competition, where they will face Barnard Castle. In doing so they had to overcome Garstang from the Northern League and Northern from the Liverpool Competition.

In the first match Garstang made 142, but a 43-ball 85 from Kimani Melius inspired Westhoughton to a six-wicket victory with four overs to spare.

In the second match Northern failed by six runs to chase down Garstang’s 185.

Westhoughton began the last match with a superior run rate over Northern and the Liverpool Competition team recovered from 25-3 and 93-9 to post 125 in their 20 overs.

Westhoughton responded well, but in the latter stages of their innings opted to give priority to scoring the 110 runs to win the area finals on run rate, ending seven runs short of Northern’s total but qualifying for the next stage.

This coming Sunday the final Bolton League Dixon Air Conditioning T20 matches will be played at Eagley and Westhoughton.

n See tomorrow's paper for the latest 2nd XI action and news of a triumph for Farnworth Social Circle's juniors