The Horwich innings ended at 125-9 with Jack Berry hitting 48 and Kamran Younas taking 3-42.

Farnworth Social Circle remain third but are rapidly being challenged by neighbours Farnworth who beat them on Saturday.

Milinda Siriwardana struck 63 in Farnworth’s 222, Ryan Ayres taking 3-76. Circle, having reached 116-2 thanks to Ben Hamilton (55) and Ayres (40), could only total 160 as Hamilton recorded figures of 6-22.

In another rain-affected match, Astley Bridge’s 130-8 (Shahzad Patel (36) and Irfan Puda (37)) proved to be 20 too many for Blackrod who were at one point 72-3 courtesy of Tush De Zoysa’s 46. Lesiba Ngoepe was Bridge’s leading wicket taker with 4-34.

In the Association Division, Atherton, Walkden, Little Lever and Lostock have all won two out of their first three matches.

Atherton scored 204 in their 40 overs, Rhys Webb (64) and Daniel Hughes (43) in the runs, but Walkden overtook this for the loss of seven wickets thanks to a century from Mohammed Jamil, who rescued them from 55-4.

Hughes, with 3-34, and Saif Ur Rehman (4-62) made Walkden fight for their victory.

From 7-3 Kearsley made it to 211, the major contributors being Abel Mokhuane, with 80, and Mo Jameel (74) from 41 deliveries.

Taj Khan took 3-78 for Little Hulton who ended their innings at 92-5 after 25 overs, Yashoda Lanka with 3-22.

The Lostock v Little Lever match was decided on DLS calculations, with Little Lever’s 119-4 being sufficient to overtake Lostock’s 120-9.

George Jackson rescued Lostock from 16-4 with 34 runs with Andy Fleur taking 4-44. Nipun Gaikwad then hit a half-century for Lever.

The remaining match was abandoned with Eagley 21-1 against Tonge.

On Sunday, in the Hamer Cup, a 148-run opening partnership between Matty Morris (131) and Kamran Younas (93) provided the backbone of Westhoughton’s 278-9.

Jack Berry took 3-43 for Horwich, whose 215 was largely dependent on 80 from Brett Pelser and 66 from Marcus Haydock, Morris taking 6-33 for Westhoughton.

They will be joined in the final by Astley Bridge, Jack Bentham contributing a half-century to their 201.

Despite 63 from Adnan Mufti, Walkden fell 18 runs short, with David Cryer and Shivan Perera sharing six wickets.

On Sunday, the ECB T20 area finals will be staged at Westhoughton C, being the Bolton League’s turn on the rota.

Match start times are:- 10am – Farnworth Social Circle v Clifton, 1pm – Leigh v Netherfield, 4pm – final.

Farnworth Social Circle reached the finals after defeating Horwich last Friday.

Josh Little, with 39, and Joe Baldwin, with 36, rescued Horwich from 28-4 with them ending on 131-6.

However, Jameel Stuart led Circle to a six-wicket victory in the penultimate over with an unbeaten 74.