The Moorhouse Brewery Twenty20 competition got underway on Friday evening, with Accrington, Church and Rishton all getting their 2013 campaigns under way.

Accrington’s trip to East Lancashire ended in defeat, as they were soundly beaten by eight wickets.

Batting first, Accrington struggled to 83 all out, with Simon Hanson top scoring with just 32.

Just two of the Accrington batting line-up managed to reach double figures.

Jimmy Hayhurst said that his side’s poor use of powerplays led to their insufficient total.

“We didn’t get a good enough start, we should have used our powerplays a lot better than we did at the top of the innings,” he said.

“We knew we were about 40 runs shy of where we wanted to be at the halfway stage, and after that we were always chasing the game, and we just left ourselves too much to do.”

East Lancs were able to chase down the target of 84 with relative ease, reaching the line with 4.4 overs remaining for the loss of just two wickets.

“I think one of the contributing factors was the decision to rotate the team,”?added Hayhurst.

“We had a few of the younger lads coming in and we struggled a bit.”

Their next game in the competition comes against Rishton next Friday, and Hayhurst believes the team can pick themselves up and respond, insisting: “I think the key is to do the basics right. The lads have had a feel for the competition now, and if we can get everybody singing from the same hymn sheet, we’ll be fine.”

Ahead of their clash with Accrington next week, Rishton were able to get their first points on the board with an eight-wicket win over Church at Blackburn Road.

Kasun Bodhisha top scored for the hosts with a handy 62, while Rishton’s Mo Patel claimed four scalps as Church set Rishton a decent target of 159 to win.

The visitors were able to chase down the total with eight balls to spare.

Professional Daniel Salpietro made an unbeaten 60, leaving Church captain Craig Fergusson disappointed with the manner of his side’s defeat.

“At the halfway stage, I was happy with 158. I thought it was a good score and we really should have been able to defend it, especially on our home ground. There aren’t any short boundaries so it was a poor performance really.” he said.

The Church skipper admitted it was the ill-disciplined bowling that ultimately cost his team.

“We struggled bowling-wise, we bowled a hell of a lot of wides and gave away too many extras, and we got what we deserved really.”

Church meet Enfield in their next T20 encounter on Friday, but Fergusson insists these problems won’t be fixed overnight. “We worked hard on our bowling in the league matches, but we know that it’s not something we can just click our fingers and put right,” he added.