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Love struck

10/ 7/2008

RADCLIFFE, Prestwich and Stand all recorded league wins at the weekend but Unsworth let the local contingent down by losing at Crompton.

However, a Darren Love-inspired Unsworth did have success in the Lake Garage Central Lancashire League’s Twenty20 Cup, progressing to the semi-finals with a seven-wicket win at Royton.

Overseas amateur Love took five wickets for 32 runs as Royton were skittled for 136 runs in Friday’s quarter-final before an unbeaten knock of 59 runs from skipper Wayne Madsen helped Unsworth to surpass that total with relative ease.

In the league the following day, Unsworth lost at fellow high-flyers Crompton by just one wicket after posting 171 runs for the loss of six wickets.

Their best batsman was Paul Manley, who hit 79 runs, and their top bowler was Liam Richards, who claimed 4-35.

Radcliffe cemented top spot in the Central Lancashire League with an eight-wicket victory at home to mid-table Walsden.

They limited Walsden to 131-9 thanks largely to Carl Sandri’s bowling figures of 4-31 before 55 runs from professional Usman Tariq saw Radcliffe cruise passed the victory post.

Mid-table Prestwich were too strong for lowly Dukinfield in the Lees Brewery Lancashire County League.

The defending champions prevailed by 41 runs after bowling out Dukinfield for 93 runs with Phil Kyle walking away with the stunning bowling figures of 8-26.

In the same league, Stand edged a tense game with struggling Woodbank to move up to eighth in the table.

They amassed 122-9 before restricting Woodbank to 118-8 to record their first ever league win over Woodbank.

Stand were missing key men Stuart Catterall and Andrew Sharp but they had good performers in top order batsmen Dave Taylor, Carl Sutcliffe and Chris Holt, who made 23, 34 and 21 runs respectively, plus bowlers Niranjan Kumara, Sutcliffe and Zahid Javed, who claimed 5-25, 2-63 and 1-24 respectively.