Walkden dodge the rain to strengthen their grip

6:10am Tuesday 2nd September 2008

WALKDEN’S relentless march towards the title continued unabated on Sunday, when they beat the weather to score a widely-predicted victory away to basement club Heaton.

They are still not mathematically certain but, after beating long-time leaders Egerton in Saturday’s pivotal fixture, Mike Bennison’s side reinforced their championship credentials with an emphatic 10-wicket win Having restricted Heaton to 128-9 they knew they had to get a move on if they were going to beat the rain in pursuit of a revised target of 116, and they didn’t hang around, knocking off the runs without loss in just 13 overs.

Praveen Gupta served notice by hitting the first three balls for four on his way to 71 not out and he had good support at the other end from Stephen Davies, who hit an unbeaten 38.

Egerton bounced back from Saturday’s morale-sapping defeat with a 42-run win at Westhoughton in a rain-affected game.

But it might have been a different story if Danny Guest had not denied Dwayne Smith a hat-trick and gone on to hit 60.

Smith, who reached 50 wickets for the summer with figures of 8-95 off 25 overs, dismissed Saj Fernando and Syd De Silva with successive balls, but Guest managed a single off the hat-trick ball and went on to guide the long-time league leaders to a total of 220.

Weather interruptions meant Westhoughton’s innings was reduced to 35 overs, giving them a revised total of 165. But they struggled in the face of some impressive bowling by Tom Fairclough, who took 6-48, and were skittled out for 123.

It was an exciting finish at Little Lever, where the home side managed a three-run victory over Bradshaw.

Pro Majeed top-scored with 71 and Anthony Hilton hit an unbeaten 38 as Little Lever posted 203-9. Bradshaw, set a revised target of 154 off 27 overs, made a good fist of it with their professional Muzumdar the backbone of their reply with an unbeaten 89. But the bowlers, notably Patel, who took 5-54, made it a tight contest and in the end the visitors fell agonisingly short at 151-7.Greenmount’s chances of finishing runners-up suffered a blow when they lost at home to Astley Bridge by 45 runs.

They appeared to have the job half done when they bowled the visitors out for just 136, but they had no answer to Bridge pro Pramuka Liyanage, who took 7-30, and were bowled out for a disappointing 91.

Farnworth’s professional Weerakoon earned his keep, making decisive contributions with bat and ball in the eight-wicket win over Social Circle.

Weerakoon took 7-35 as Social Circle were dismissed for 95 then hit an unbeaten 33 as Farnworth, passed their revised target of 77.

The Eagley-Horwich clash produced some good cricket until the weather finally got the better of both fielders and batsmen, forcing the umpires to abandon proceedings with Horwich on 41-2 in reply to Eagley’s 213.

The rain wrecked any chance of a result at Castle Hill, where Tonge’s reply to Kearsley’s 169-7 was halted after just 10 overs, by which time the home side had reached 23-2.

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