Church victory adds to stuggling East’s woes

IN JW Lees Senior Division 2, Church & Oswaldtwistle became the latest side to take advantage of East Lanca-shire’s struggles this sea-son, claiming a four-wicket win at Alexandra Meadows.

- NEAL WILKINSON & RICHARD PARTINGTON

Church won the toss and elected to field, East Lancs going on to make what looked a reasona-bly challenging total in the conditions of 164-5, S Ahmad top-scored with 41 while H Walshaw hit 29no and M Khan 28no off just nine deliv-eries.

K Florentine, 24, and S Holt, 22, got the Church reply off to a decent start, putting on 46 for the first wicket.

A Hewitt struck 34 and M Bhada 44no as Church completed the run chase in 26 overs.

Accrington were beaten by one wicket as they entertained Colne.

The visitors won the toss and fielded first, Accrington going on to make 135-7 with E Harat-bar 44, J Snyman 29 and G Sneddon 28.

Nine Colne wickets fell in their reply, but G Kumara, 30, Y Ali 20, I Shakeel 20 and T Brad-shaw 23 did enough to see them over the line.

Rishton’s home game against Greenmount was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

Rawtenstall travelled to Glebe Street and returned home with 12 points after a convincing victory against Crompton.

Making the most of the favourable bowling condi-tions, Rawtenstall skipper A Fernando asked the home side to bat first upon winning the toss.

M Askew with 4-31 and I Abid 3-14 took advan-tage of the tricky wicket as Crompton were restricted to 84 all out inside 24 overs.

In response, Fernando hit an unbeaten 44 and R Shafiq 27no, the visitors reaching their target within 18 overs.

Great Harwood fell to a nine-wicket defeat at Nel-son.

The home side won the toss and opted to field first on a damp wicket which was always going to prove tricky.