Lever pro makes up for some lost time

2:10pm Monday 29th May 2006

LITTLE Lever have been kept waiting for their new professional Mohammad Saddiq to arrive but the Pakistan paceman paid them back in style when he steered the club to their second win of the season.

Saddiq was concerned before the match that the wet conditions would cramp his style, but he need not have worried as he went on to produce debut figures of 6-60 in his side's thrilling three-run win over Kearsley.

At the halfway mark the mood in the home dressing room was a little gloomier after Kearsley had restricted them to a disappointing 144, Mel Whittle another bowler to impress with even better figures of 7-53.

Saddiq was one of his victims caught behind for one but his failure with the bat was quickly forgotten as he ripped into the Kearsley batsmen to put his side back into the game.

Only Kearsley pro Sherwin Ganga could offer any resistance and for a time he looked as if he could be the matchwinner, but in the end he became another of Saddiq's victims when he was caught by Lee Baldwin for 63 leaving the rest of the side to crumble to 141 all out.

Eagley were another of the sides at the wrong end of the table to pick up a win.

They scored an emphatic nine wicket victory over Astley Bridge, although a little of the edge was taken off that with the visitors missing a good number of senior players, who were at teammate Simon Entwistle's wedding.

Even so, the match facts show that Bridge were bowled out for 71, Nick Biggar taking 5-12 off 12 overs and Steve Foster 4-41, Phil McDermott and pro Mike O'Rourke took the reply to 74-1.

Bradshaw were impressive 73-run winners over a Walkden side still looking to find their feet this season.

Batting first, Bradshaw scored 189-6, Mike Ward making a handsome contribution of 79, but Walkden looked on target with an opening reply of 62-2.

It was Matthew McGuiness who finally decided the match fortunes when he picked up 4-24 engineering a collapse to 116 all out, only Jon Fearick showing resistance with 45.

Tonge Pro Adil Nisar was in good form as he scored 112 against Greenmount but that was out of a total of 182-9 and it never looked enough to seal a win.

That turned out to be the case with Andy Kerr (71) and Andy Bowker (52 not out) steering the home side to a comfortable four-wicket win.

Horwich thought they had done the hard work when Andy Taylor had Farnworth pro Brendan Parchment caught and bowled after the prolific big-hitter had made only seven.

Even so, Farnworth still totalled 185-9 in a 37-over match, Martin Axford top scoring on 46.

Parchment, however, made up for his batting lapse by taking five wickets for 46, and that left the home side at 133-8.

For Horwich, Mark Adams hit 68, and Andy Taylor had the impressive figures of 6-70.

Egerton were seven-wicket winners at Heaton after Gareth Dooley's bowling figures of 6-24 left the home side all out for 142.

Paul Stafford then led the reply with 46, which included seven 4s and two 6s, and Egerton coasted in with 145-3.