Bacup are blown away inside 45 minutes As Willman collects seven wickets

IT was an afternoon to forget for Bacup in the JW Lees Senior Division 2 clash at Lanehead, where they won the toss against Littleborough and opted to take first knock.

They were rapidly obliterated inside 45 minutes for a paltry total of 26, Lewis Willman picking up 7-15 and Ryan Miskella 2-5.

The game was over by 2.17pm, Travis Townsend falling for 13 but having done enough with fellow opener Zac Perren (7) to secure the easiest of victories with less than six overs bowled.

Accrington followed up their opening win of the season last time out with a first victory on the road, celebrating a 32-run triumph against Enfield at Dill Hall Lane.

The home side won the toss and chose to field first. Pretty much all of Accrington’s runs came from their top four batsmen – Stuart Crabtree hit 31, Ben Gorton 18, Toby Bulcock 23 and Jacob Clarke sticking around for 90 deliveries to run up a most useful 35 runs. After that, only Graeme Sneddon (16) entered double figures as the visitors closed on 166 all out. Faheem Bashart took 4-19 and Yasir Ali 3-49 for Enfield.

In reply, Lewis Wright (19), Liam Jackson (38) and Alfie Cook (30) looked in decent shape but support was shortcoming and Enfield were all out for 134 in the 42nd over, Bulcock having taken 5-31 and James Hayhurst 3-35 to help Accrington to victory.

Rawtenstall lost out on home turf to league leaders Crompton by 47 runs.

The visitors won the toss and elected to bat first, Denis Louis hitting 58 off 74 balls and Mohammed Jamal 46 off 64 as they put together an innings of 179 all out.

Imran Abid was the stand-out bowler for Rawtenstall, claiming 6-60 off his 15 overs.

In reply, only Matthew Kershaw with 34 off 71 deliveries and S Hussain with 37 off 65 stuck around for any length of time, Rawtenstall all out for 132 in the 39th over.

Great Harwood edged an entertaining clash by four runs on the road at The Horsfield against Colne.

Asked to the bat by the home side having lost the toss, Thikshila De Silva’s stunning 111 off 70 deliveries and Matthew Oddie with 81 off 100 set the visitors on course for a big total. Reece Willets pitched in with 43 off 56 balls as Great Harwood

reached a daunting 293-6 off their 50 overs.

In fairness, Colne recovered from a poor start – they were 8-2 and 18-3 – to make a real fist of it in chasing down the total.

Star man was Geeth Kumara, who struck a superb 163 off 138 balls, assisted by Tom Bradshaw’s 51 off 57. But in the end they fell just short, managing 289 off their 50 overs.

Best with the ball for Great Harwood were Ethan Houldsworth (3-22) and De Silva (3-57).

Church & Oswaldtwistle lost out on their trip to Alexandra Meadows, where East Lancashire claimed a 27-run win.

East Lancs won the toss and batted first, making 202 off their 50 overs with useful contributions from opener James Westhead (53), P Turner (46) and John Turner (48).

Eli Smith proved the difference between the sides on the day as his bowling prevented the Church batting line-up from taking root at the wicket.

Smith took 6-36 as Church were dismissed for 175 in the 50th over, opener Nathaniel Young top-scoring with 32 while Sagar Vijay Trivedi hit 29 and Liam Dyson 23.

At Blackburn Road, Haseeb Hameed was outstanding with bat and ball as Rishton claimed a seven-run win over visitors Nelson, who had won the toss and elected to field.

With Nelson bowler Usman Tariq picking up an impressive 6-32, Rishton had Hameed to thank for helping them to a total of 135 all out.

He struck 83 off 129 deliveries with only Chris Sanderson (13) and Luke Eddleston (18) offering any kind of support.

Hameed then proved equally as impressive with the ball, taking 5-48 off 15 overs as Nelson were dismissed for 128 in the 47th over, Neil Thompson their only successful batsman with 58 off 104 balls.

Sammi Senapathi’s economy rate with the ball for Rishton was even better than Hameed’s

– he took 4-21 off just 7.5 overs.