You can't win them all...

Saturday saw Westhoughton vs Eagley abandoned after only 19 overs with Eagley 71-1 from 19 overs, Kieran Edwards taking the only wicket.
On Sunday, Westhoughton hosted their local rivals Horwich in the first derby game of the season and were the home side were asked to bat first. Westhoughton made slow but steady progress reaching 61 before the opening partnership of Rob Houghton (24) and Atiq Uz-Zaman (48) was broken, but it had taken them 23 overs to reach this score. This brought pro Qaiser Abbas to the crease who top scored with 68 from 63 deliveries, sharing a partnership of 92 with Ian Pilkington (35*) as they took the score from 88-2 in the 31st over to 180-3 in the 46th over. Westhoughton finished 204-4, with the final ball of the innings seeing Rob Brown hit a huge 6 into the houses, smashing a roof tile in the process! The hosts probably felt confident of defending that target if they could make an early break through.
In response, Horwich reaching 52 before Qaiser Abbas picked up the first of yet another 5 wicket haul, with Atiq claiming the first of two stumpings. Wickets fell at regular intervals (94, 97, 148 and 186) as partnerships were slowly but surely ticking things over at around 4 and later 5 runs an over. Unfortunately for the hosts, a dropped catch with Horwich's deputy pro on 36 probably cost them the game as he went on to finish 58*, and with only 1 over left when Horwich reached their target, lesser quality players may not have dealt with the situation as well as their pro.
Westhoughton face Greenmount (away) next Saturday followed by Astley Bridge (home) in the Hamer Cup on Sunday and Eagley (home) in the ECB T/20 competition next Monday.