NETHERFIELD squeezed through to the final of the ECB Area National Club Twenty20 with a narrow win over Astley Bridge from the Bolton Cricket League.

In a game reduced to 14 overs per side due to rain, the home side posted a powerful 129-6 from their allocation, with John Huck top-scoring with 33.

In reply, by conceding 15 wides in a total of 23 extras, the home side allowed the visitors to claw their way back into the game and nearly force an unlikely victory.

After being invited to bat, Craig Walmsley and Marc Brown started positively and advanced the hosts’ score to 43-0 after four overs, with the Netherfield skipper racing to 30.

Brown hit three sixes before being dismissed with the first ball of the fifth over, caught by Sakib Afzal off the bowling of right-arm medium pacer David Cryer.

Walmsley was the next to go for 19 with the score on 56, before Huck and Ben Barrow enjoyed a productive 41-run partnership inside five overs.

Huck was the main aggressor in the stand and cracked two sixes while at the crease, with the pair also running well between the wickets.

The big-hitting wicketkeeper was the first of two victims for Sri Lankan Syd Da Siva, with Barrow and Chris Parry taking on the baton of adding quick runs.

Left-hander Parry hit a run-a-ball 13 before departing, caught at mid-wicket by Irfan Puda off Da Silva, before Stephen Shepley claimed two scalps in the final over.

Hall walked for one while Barrow was stumped by Richard Northrup for an important 21, as Shepley finished with figures of 2-20 off 2 overs.

Netherfield finished with a more than competitive 129-6, with Zaheer Khan proving the visitors’ most economical bowler, conceding 20 runs from three overs while also claiming the wicket of Walmsley.

Da Silva, as well as being Astley Bridge’s leading wicket taker this summer with 58, opened the batting with his captain Simon Entwhistle.

And despite getting the innings going with a straight drive off Scott Clement, the right-arm seamer had his man the very next ball, Da Silva edging behind to Huck.

Clement proved the pick of the Netherfield bowlers, taking 1-15 off his three overs, and together with Nathan Chambers and leg-spinner Marc Hadwin tied the visitors down.

Entwhistle and Puda only managed to take the score to 32-2 in the seventh over before the former was run out for ten after a mix-up, Hadwin removing the bails.

Puda was joined at the crease by Northrop, the club’s leading run scorer so far this year, and the two batsmen set about rebuilding the innings and hunting down the Netherfield total.

Shane Dixon’s radar was slightly wayward, conceding 12 runs from his only over, while the duo took 15 runs from Brad Earl’s first over.

With Astley Bridge needing 37 off 16 balls, Entwhistle took successive boundaries from the final two deliveries of Hall’s last over to maintain a chance of success.

Chambers finished the 13th over with two dots, meaning 19 were needed off the final six deliveries, bowled by left-arm spinner Earl.

Entwistle carved a four through deep backward point off the first ball before smashing a six over mid-wicket.

However, despite Puda finishing unbeaten on 44 not out and Northrop undefeated on 42, their efforts were in vain as Astley Bridge ultimately fell three runs short.