Run fest

Hodgy won the toss and elected to bat which looked a good decision as Matt Trow and Glenn Bullock assaulted the opening attack putting on over 100 before Matt was out caught behind for a good 40. Glenn continued to hit boundaries reaching his fifty whilst Hodgy struggled against the slow bowling on a damp track. Glenn eventually fell for 70 hitting a full toss to Daley at deep mid wicket. Shaun Dunning steady pushed the ball around as Hodgy fell for 13 after skying a ball to point.JP looked good for his 12 before hitting a long hop to extra cover. Mikey King joined Shaun and they rebuilt the innings hitting the bad ball for 4 or 6 as Shaun reached his maiden 50 with a six onto the club roof. He went shortly after bowled for 54 by Jason Raynor whilst Kingy was out in the 40s. Kai and Dan Higham batted the last 2 overs taking the innings to 273 of the allotted 46 overs.

In response Farnworth got off to a flyer as Michael Daley and Matthew Hicks assaulted the bowling of Dan Higham and Simon Ashcroft hitting straight and out of the ground whenever the ball was pitched up. Hicky had a life as JP failed to take a steeping top edge running back but was eventually out for 32. Neil Hyde entered the fray and continued the hitting before being out caught hitting a Wasim full toss to Simon at long off. Daley had a life on 88 as Kai running in from the boundary failed to hold onto a tough chance. Wasim took another wicket bowled as Daley went onto reach his Ton off only 17 overs. Shaun Dunning replaced Simon and also was at the brunt of some ferocious hitting as balls went flying out of the ground leaving Runi to rummage through the changing room and reload with spares. Runi replaced Wasim with Hodgy with the score at 200-2 who immediately slowed the run rate as the batters struggled with pace taken off the ball.. Dan returned for a second spell and took 4 wickets with the flying Glenn Bullock taking a blinder at full stretch at short third man to dismiss Aaron Rushton. Daley had another reprieve at 106 but was eventually out for 111 caught Matt Trow at long on to give Dan another victim before he took a smart caught & bowled from a hard driven ball. Hodgy after having 4 dropped chances finally got his reward picking up 2 lbw and a JP stumping. With Farnworth closing in on the target Simon replaced Dan and beat the bat numerous times before finding the inside edge of the no11 but JP couldnt hold onto a difficult chance. With the score at 268-9 nerves on both sides were jangling as both sets of supporters encouraged their teams.Finally the batsmen threw caution to the wind and hit the ball to cow corner as Dan held onto the catch in the deep to give Hodgy his 4th victim and a hard fought victory was earned against a dangerous Farnworth side.

With Horwich losing the 2s are all but mathematically certain to retain the championship for a 4th straight year as they go 28 points clear with 5 games left.