Lowerhouse bowl their way to two wins from two

Joe Hawke took 5-25 and professional Ockert Erasmus 4-30 to bowl the visitors to a 53 run win after setting a target of 167.

An unbroken eighth wicket stand of 81 between Francois Haasbroek (54) and veteran Chris Bleazard (34) helped Lowerhouse recover from 85-7 to 166-7. Skipper Ben Heap also made 32 and Erasmus 18 during the away side’s innings.

However, Burnley failed to back up their win over defending Lancashire League champions Walsden after crashing to defeat at home to Crompton.

Dan Pickup, who was absent through illness at the weekend, had challenged his side to add some substance to their victory at Scott Street but they fell 13 runs short.

Nick Barker’s champions had lost once all season when landing the title in their inaugural campaign in this sphere, making Burnley’s five-wicket win even more impressive.

But they couldn’t match that display at Turf Moor when chasing the away side’s 207-9 finish. Sam Rigby (30) accompanied sub-professional Akbar Rahman (34) in a 72-run stand for the second wicket.

The hosts forced breakthroughs intermittently but a second stand of 49 for the eighth wicket between skipper Simon Wright (49 not out) and Adam Good (25) kicked Crompton on again.

Imran Khalid took 3-41 from 14 overs for the home side while former captain Bharat Tripathi added 3-51 during his 12 over spell.

Burnley’s reply started well enough as Liam Bedford (38) and Chris Holt (27) put on 62 for the opening wicket but their run rate from that point onwards was just short of what was required.

Sub-pro Imran Khalid (25) and Joey Marshall (49) pushed Burnley on to 112-4 but nobody could anchor down the innings at the tail end with Aidan Tate (20).

Lowerhouse host Norden at Liverpool Road on Sunday while Burnley travel to Redbrook to take on Rochdale.