League duo reach Lancs KO semis

11:33am Tuesday 22nd July 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

WALKDEN and Farnworth SC booked their places in the semi-finals of the Lancashire Knockout on Sunday.

Circle cruised to a nine-wicket victory at home to New Brighton.

Chasing the visitors’ 150, Luke Perry and pro Shanath Kalavitigoda cracked half centuries as Farnworth set up a tough test against Liverpool’s top club, Bootle.

Joining them in the last four will be Walkden, who will take on Winton following their 16-run triumph over Denton West.

Jon Fearick (48), Praveen Gupta (41) and Liam Jackson (39) helped Mike Bennison’s side reach 236.

Dave Smith (3-43) and Sam Reidy (3-18) combined to end Denton’s challenge.

But there was disappointment for Farnworth in the last 16 of the National Knockout after they lost by 11 runs at Northern.

The Merseysiders set the Bridgeman Park club 170-8 to win, with Lee Sutton the pick of the bowlers with 3-26.

Farnworth were well in control at 123-2 after 31 overs but then collapsed to 159 all out with an over to spare. Captain Lee Childs top scored with 46, while David White added 31.

Tonge’s Hamer Cup semi-final clash against Farnworth, which was rained off for a third time on Saturday, has been rearranged for Friday at 2pm.