1st Dominate Reigning Champions

Westhoughton 1st XI hosted Farnworth looking to avenge the defeat from earlier in the season that saw them crash to their lowest total of the league campaign. The match was reduced to 35 overs per side due to a late start caused by the pitch being wet.
Farnworth were asked to bat first, and this looked to be a bad decision when they were 95-0 inside 20 overs. However, Paul Hart struck to remove Farnworth's Pro, and from this point onwards wickets would fall at regular intervals as Harty (3-53 from 9 overs) and Qaiser Abbas (3-82 from 17 overs) helped restrict Farnworth to 190-6 from their 35 overs when 200 had looked a realistic target for much of their innings.
In response, Westhoughton made steady progress throughout the run chase as Qaiser Abbas (88) and Atiq Uz-Zaman (86*) shared a huge 183 run partnership before Qaiser was caught, obviously looking to try and reach his century when only 8 runs were needed, meaning he had to hit two 6's. Kieran Paisley (who had been on the field as a runner for Qaiser) helped see the home side over the line and secure a 7 point victory. Next up for the lads is a trip to table-topping Little Lever.