Last year's finalists Church kicked off their Twenty20 campaign with a 54-run win over Rishton in Group A.
Church professional Saeed Anwar made 42 and Nasser Hussain 31 in a second-wicket stand of 62 as the home side made 120-8.
Rishton paid man Cameron Delport (2-13), Shaun Hutchinson (2-17), Ali Sartaj (2-22) and Mark Leathert (2-35) shared the wickets.
Rishton were always struggling after slumping to 8-4 but a late 29 by Craig Smith helped them pump the score up.
Mohammad Jamil (3-10), Anwar (3-10) and Levi Wolfenden (2-11) didn’t give Rishton a chance though as they were all out for 66.
Accrington suffered a nine-wicket loss in their opening Group A encounter against East Lancs,
The star of the show for East Lancs was pro Ockert Erasmus who hit an unbeaten 77 in reply to Accrington’s 131-6.
Pro Ashar Zaidi (38), Graham Lloyd (21) and Jimmy Hayhurst (16) were Accrington’s main scorers.