Former champions Read completed the Hamer Cup semi-final line-up with a convincing win by eight wickets away at Kearsley on Sunday.
Read won this competition back in 2024 and will travel to Eagley on August 2. The other last-four tie sees Atherton host Farnworth, with two Premiership sides and two Championship sides chasing silverware.
On Sunday, Read’s victory at Springfield Road was one of those which falls into the category of ‘all-round team performance’.
They bowled Kearsley out for 111 as Joe Halstead returned figures of 4-32 from eight overs, while Sri Lankan professional Sehan Weerasinghe claimed 4-45 from 5.3 overs. Chris Holt also struck twice.
Only one Kearsley batter made it to 20, with Dhanraj Patel contributing an entertaining 59 off 37 balls with six fours and four sixes.
Patel helped Kearsley recover from 46-4 to 94-4, only for them to lose their last six wickets for 17 runs. Patel fell as one of them, in fact as one of two in as many balls for Weerasinghe’s spin.
In reply, Read were never threatened.
Openers Will Wrathall and Oliver Dinning made 23 apiece, the former sharing 38 for the second wicket with top-scorer Joe Marshall from 29-1.
Marshall made an unbeaten 36 off 52 balls with seven fours and shared an unbroken 49 for the third wicket - from 67-2 - with Weerasinghe, who capped his good day with an unbeaten 18.
Read won inside 21 of their 40 overs. The whole game lasted only 43 overs combined.
Of the teams in the semi-finals, Atherton are the only side not to have previously won the Hamer Cup, owing much to the fact that much of their existence has been as a Bolton Association club.
Eagley and Farnworth are multiple winners, while Read - as aforementioned - won it two summers ago when they beat Little Lever in the final.
