Opening Weekend 2010

DAISY Hill’s Asif Zakir and Darcy Lever’s Jimmy Deering must have been wondering what they had to do to be on the winning side on Saturday.

Zakir scored a stunning 141 not out at Edgworth but none of his team-mates managed more than 21 while Dave Parkinson (6-54) and Luke Woodcock (4-52) were on top form for Edgworth.

Deputy pro Woodcock then led the victory charge with an unbeaten 74, and Brett Ernst scored 42 and Guy Haynes 30, as Edgworth won with five wickets and 5.3 overs remaining.

Deering hit 127, and Jack Southworth 59 in Darcy’s last-ball defeat at Flixton. Chasing 279-8 (Kevin Hogan 67, Rob Clews 44, Tom Syddall 38 and Dominic Gavin 5-99) Darcy needed six off the last over then three off the last ball. They got one and suffered a run out.

Darcy and Daisy’s defeats and Blackrod’s 23-run loss to runaway leaders Little Hulton mean the title is now the latter’s to lose, even at this early stage.

Darren Mullineux’s side gained revenge for their only defeat in any competition last Sunday with a convincing show to stretch their lead at the top to 44 points points.

Hasnain Abbas’s superb season continued with 79 and opener Suleman Muhammed hit 47 as Little Hulton posted 260-9.

Blackrod’s Asif Bhojani took 3-86 then scored 42, Chris Sanderson came in at number three and provided superb resistance for 86. Sanvir Maharaj scored 40 in Blackrod’s effort to follow up last week’s win in the Cross Cup. That they didn’t was largely due to Zulfiqar Babar and Abbas who took 4-82 and 4-69 respectively.

At the other end, Adlington coasted to a convincing 83-run home victory in the clash of the bottom two with Standish.

A solid team batting performance saw pro Majid Majeed score 46 and four players in the 20s as Adlington posted 223-7.

Jon Howells then led the way with the ball, taking 4-43, while Standish did not help their own cause with three runouts.

Adlington, who won with seven overs remaining, climbed above Spring View and Golborne while Standish are 29 points adrift at the bottom.

Golborne put up a fighting performance before going down by 35 runs at Walshaw who have quietly climbed into second place.

Scott Mudgway (56), Gavin Nicholl (44), Nick Murphy (37) and David Mills (37) gave the reigning champions a decent 223-6 to defend.

Golborne had a chance while Ian McMillan (51) and Lee Baldwin (44) were going well together. Graham Marston came in at number six and hit a quick 27 to maintain Golborne’s hopes.

But when he and McMillan went, the game belonged to Walshaw for whom David Bowden took 6-76 and Liam Riley 4-61.

Elton coasted to a 51-run win at Astley and Tyldesley where the home side gave them a little help with three runouts. Mike Hall scored 68 and Peter Lomax 48 as Elton posted 228 (Joe Hawke 3-54, Paul Bennett 3-38).

Toby Bulcock ensured A&T never threatened that total as the pro took 5-66, Jamie McDougall scoring 38 and Hawke 36 for A&T.

Danny Salpietro again showed his class with 5-10 as Atherton got Spring View out for 91 then knocked off the winning runs for the loss of two wickets.