Littleborough made it a 10-point weekend with a convincing win over Unsworth on Sunday.

Their victory was built on two lengthy partnerships that saw two Boro players reach personal landmarks.

Captain and professional Clinton Perren hit a fine 109, his 25th century for the club in all competitions. Fellow Australian Worrin Williams made 48, taking him past 1,000 runs for the season.

The pair came together in the fourth over after Gary Hulme had been caught on the fine leg boundary.

Unsworth’s bowling was causing them few problemsn and the only concern was that the run-rate wasn’t progressing as quickly as some onlookers would have liked.

But with plenty of wickets and overs in hand, Boro were in control with a score in excess of 200 on the cards.

The total had reached 104 in the 30th over when Unsworth finally made another breakthrough – Williams out to an excellent diving catch by Wiggans at mid-off.

Jon Henderson joined Perren and they continued where they had left off at Heywood the previous day.

Boundaries were hard to come by, but the score was moving along at almost a run a ball as the batsmen picked off plenty of singles and twos.

Perren brought up his ton with a boundary but he was out shortly after in bizarre circumstances, as an attempted sweep saw the ball loop behind to the wicket-keeper.

Henderson and Mo Bux then took Boro to 225-3 at the close.

Unsworth were on the back foot almost immediately in their reply when, with only four runs on the board, Arora got a faint edge and was caught behind by Jamie Roche. Gregoriou was well caught at forward short leg by Tim Astley with the score on 31, and just two runs later, Fazil edged a rising Bux delivery to Roche.

The visitors’ cause looked lost, although Long and Wiggans frustrated Boro for nine overs as the score crept past 60.

As so often happens, Phil Deakin’s introduction to the attack proved a masterstroke and he removed both batsmen in the space of two overs.

Wiggans was well held at slip by Perren and Long was bowled. Unsworth were now in a perilous state at 65-5 with Boro desperate to wrap up the tail to keep alive their hopes of a top-five finish.

They picked up the sixth wicket at 80 when Matthew Bood took a well-judged catch on the long-on boundary to remove Fowler.

Judge was out in the next over when Astley produced a fine diving catch in the covers. Jon Henderson then produced another good catch to remove Casey with the score on 92.

The last three batsmen hung around for another eight overs, but Perren removed Clarkson with his first ball and Hetherington with his 10th to complete his side’s maximum weekend.

ON Saturday, Perren was again the mainstay of the Littleborough innings against Heywood at Crimble, with an unbeaten 95. He found a willing ally in Jon Henderson, who contributed70, as the visitors scored 248-5.

Heywood suffered a major setback with the early loss of professional Agathangelou, and, despite a half century from Danny Pawson and 44 from Hamish Paterson, they were all out for 179. Williams with 5-87 and Bux with 4-85 did the damage.

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