Church taste second derby win of season
IN the second round of JW Lees Lancashire League cricket action, Church and Oswaldtwistle enjoyed their second victory of the season against near neighbours.
Having beaten Accrington on the road on the opening day of the campaign, Church this time saw off Great Harwood, winning by five wickets to claim another 12-point haul.
The visitors won the toss and elected to bat. However, they got off to a poor start. Levi Wolfendden had opener Matthew Oddie LBW without scoring with fellow first man in, Alex Kennedy, managed just three runs before he fell to an Andrew Bentley delivery – one of four wickets for him – and was caught by Sagar Vijay Trivedi.
Kasir Masood (6) went cheaply, another Bentley victim pouched by Sam Tucker and Church were in the ascendency.
Great Harwood started to wrestle back some control of proceedings with Thikshila De Silva (26) and Reece Willets (18) taking the score up to 56 before the latter was bowled by Kelan Florentine.
After De Silva went, bowled by Bentley, there was some resistance from Allan Armer (25), Muhammad Ismheel Shakeel (23) and Ethan Houldsworth (11). but the visitors were all out for 138 in the 42nd over.
Church were steady if unspectacular initially in their reply, Craig Fergusson (21), Sam Holt (11), Trivedi (11) and Wolfenden (11) all playing themselves in but failing to build on their foundations.
But Mohammed Bhada’s 36 from 69 balls and Florentine’s 28 from 51 saw the home side across the winning line.
Accrington returned home from East Lancashire empty-handed, the home side winning by 69 runs having won the toss and batted first.
Joe Bolton struck an unbeaten 102 for the home side off 141 balls, and he was ably assisted by 67 from Harsha Rajapaksha. Paul Turner (16) and John Turner (27) also chipped in as the hosts finished on 239-4 off their 50 overs.
After losing Stuart
Crabtree (2), Ben Gorton and Toby Bulcock took the score to 66 before the second wicket fell, Bulcock bowled by Phil Aspinall for 39.
Gorton stuck around and crafted a careful innings of 58, but support was in short supply for the opener, only Graeme Sneddon (15) and Richard Williams (15no) sticking around and the game was up when Gorton fell, caught by Niall Boyle off Eli Smith’s bowling.
Rishton suffered a heavy defeat at home against Rawtenstall.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, the home side struggled against the attack of Ishaq Hussain (3-16), Ryan Ayres (4-30) and Rizwan Shafiq (2-31). Daniel Briggs top-scored with 16 for Rishton.
Hussain then proved as effective with the bat as he hit an unbeaten 51, Rishton claiming just the one wicket – that of Musa Rehman, caught Chris Sanderson off Briggs’ delivery – as the away team strolled to a nine-wicket victory.
Bacup lost out at Crompton, who won by two wickets.
The visitors won the toss and batted first, reaching 189-9 off their allotted overs, Matthew Collinge with 87 the top scorer, Carl Taylor claiming 4-49 for the home side.
In a close finish, Neil Hornbuckle and Jack Bradford both took three wickets apiece for Bacup but Crompton reached their target after 47 overs, Denis Louis (40) topscoring.
Finally, Nelson won by four runs at Colne after winning the toss and electing to bat.
Usman Tariq made 125 from 130 balls in Nelson’s innings while Ashir Imdad hit 68 off 80, helping them to 264-6 off their 50 overs.
Geeth Kumara top-scored with 78 for Colne as they fell just short.