Farnworth, Eagley, Astley Bridge, Westhoughton, Lostock and Little Hulton have all secured their places in the top section after the conclusion of the first half of the Bolton League Second XI programme.

The other clubs will now be in the Association Section for the remainder of the campaign.

Farnworth reach halfway with a lead of 21 points after a five-wicket win against Horwich RMI at Bridgeman Park.

RMI batted first and reached 176-9, mainly thanks to the efforts of Max Adamson (64) and Will Pennington (40) who added 78 for the fifth wicket as Mohammed Hussain took 3-26.

Farnworth’s run chase was a real team effort with major contributions coming from Jamie Bohannon (57), Kian Rogerson (32), Simon Harrison (26), Shujat Ali (26) and Bilal Khan (24) as Kishan Hira took 3-48.

Horwich’s defeat enabled Little Hulton to sneak above them in the table as they defeated Lostock by four wickets at The Old Vicarage.

Chasing a target of 186, they were grateful for the efforts of Lister Wilson, who made 67, Ellis Pearson with 26 and Umar Rathore (24) to hold off Lostock.

The visitors had threatened a much higher target having reached 170-5 before losing the last five wickets for a further 15 runs. Asghar Ali (36), Kishan Ram (30), Geoff Earle (36) and Mark Greenhalgh (33) provided the runs, while Rathore took 4-21 and Billy Schofield 3-20 .

Eagley stayed second after a 129-run win against Little Lever at The Nest.

Making full use of batting first, they rattled up 234-7 as Alfie Owens made 64, Oscar Smith hit 62 not out, Luca Doyle scored 23 and Michael Craig totalled 23 to keep Lever toiling in the field.

Smith than starred with the ball as he claimed 5-40 and Gareth Monk took 3-9 as they skittled Lever out for 105 in reply. Only Bob Waller (24) and Ben Oxborough, who made 41 at number 10, showed much resistance.

Astley Bridge secured third place after chasing down 203 to beat Tonge at Castle Hill.

Jav Bhagat led the way for Tonge as he made 67 with good support coming from Daniel Hunt, who hit 41. Mehr Khan (3-39) and Faiz Khandu (3-56) doing the damage with the ball. Ady Cooper, who made 72, and Jamie Cooper (52) added 81 to get Bridge off to a solid start and then Paresh Patail saw them home with 33no.

Despite a 33-run defeat at The Oval, Westhoughton move forward to the second part of the season in fourth place.

Walkden batted first and finished on the day’s highest score of 246-7, with the bulk of those runs coming from Mehran Anwar (59), Sehran Khan (63no) and Noman Khalid, with 34.

Connor Kirkman led the Westhoughton chase with an excellent 96 but despite Mason McKenna-Atherton adding 30 and Steven Dryden 22, they fell just short on 202. Aman Khan, with 5-27, and Sabeel Khan (4-31) did the damage with the ball.

Kearsley got the better of Farnworth Social Circle by a margin of 67 runs after making a very handy 196.

George Banks led the way with 75 and Jack Pellowe added a useful 23 as Bradley Barrow took 5-66.

Social never really got going in reply with only Andrew Wareing and Tim Barrow reaching 20, as Andy Gregory took 3-16, and they made just 129.

Atherton and Blackrod enjoyed a good game at Higham Park where, in a game that saw both sides make more than 200, Atherton managed a 22-run win.

Lucas Charlson was the star for Atherton as he made an unbeaten 97 and together with Jack Short (52no) and Greg Greenough (21) helped set a score of 225-2.

Charlson then added 3-56 as he and Dale Tyrer (3-36) helped restrict Blackrod to 203-9 in reply.

Tom Westhead (53), Ben Mather (49) and Chris Readey (21) made the bulk of Blackrod’s runs.