Radcliffe Cricket Club completed back-to-back victories over Central Lancashire Championship’s bottom side Oldham by 22 runs.

The Homer Street men batted first and notched up 147 on a pitch that did little to please captain Chris Berry: “It is an awful place to bat and we did well to get 147,” he said.

“We made hard work of it.

“It was a wicket you had to work hard on and when you hit shots that should be going for a four they was only going for a two.

“We were 76-8 at one stage and cruising it but we took our foot off the gas with a bit of bad bowling that let them back into it but (Hafeez) Afridi stepped up and got those final two wickets we needed.”

Professional Nadeem Ashraf stepped up to the mark hitting an impressive 65 runs and taking one wicket which drew praise from Berry.

“Our pro batted really well.

“It is great to have him in the side and to see him hitting consistently high scores.”

With only a couple of games remaining Berry is hoping the newly found form will cause a disturbance to the teams battling away at the top of the division.

“It is good to have back-to-back victories under our belt now and the confidence is pretty decent and we are trying our hardest to win every game.

“Next weekend we have Middleton and Crompton at home and I fancy our chances. We have already beaten Crompton earlier this year and we came close to beating Middleton so we will be going into those games looking for the win.”