Far from fatal

with 175 from just 142, including 18 fours and six sixes.

That helped his side finish on 333-5 from their 50 overs, setting Great Harwood a huge total to reach.

Great Harwood give it their best shot, with Allan Armer (74) and professional Ashen Silva (51) leading the charge, but it wasn’t to be and they could only finish on 254-6 at the end of their innings, meaning they came up short and leaves them 13th in the table.

Elsewhere in the Lancashire League, Ramsbottom’s earned a big victory against Colne after winning by 144 runs.

Ramsbottom batted first and had several of their batsmen posting good totals, including professional Grant Thomson (78), Martin Cropper (54), JJ Fielding (44) and Jon Fielding (34).

It meant they finished on 271-8 at the end of their innings, setting their opponents a difficult total.

Colne struggled with the bat, and there were six batsmen who failed to reach double figures.

They were 61-7 at one stage before Andrew Hakin (23) and Gary Hunt (13) temporarily stopped the rot towards the back of the order, but Colne were eventually bowled all out for 127.

Jon Fielding once again performed with the ball after taking 4-49, while Simon Read took 4-26 as Ramsbottom are now up to 10th place in the table after their win.

This weekend’s Lancashire League fixtures sees a couple of local derbies, as Great Harwood host Accrington at Cliffe Park, with both teams eager to claim bragging rights.

Also going up against each other on Sunday are Enfield and Rishton, with those two teams meeting at Dill Hall Lane, while Church head to Turf Moor to take on Burnley.

CRICKET DIPESH ASHER

LCB Women made a successful start to their NatWest Women’s County T20 Division 1 campaign after their trip down to North Maidenhead CC was rewarded with back to back wins over last year’s champions Kent and hosts Berkshire.

The first game against Kent saw Lancashire win the toss and elect to bat first in the sweltering heat.

Openers Emma Lamb and Evelyn Jones got off to a great start scoring 81 for the first wicket before Jones fell for an excellent 40.

Lamb followed soon after for 33 but Kate Cross hit a rapid 30, and with Natalie Brown scoring 14, the Red Rose girls closed their innings on an impressive 143-4.

What looked a stiff task for Kent was soon made more difficult as wickets began to tumble against Lancashire’s tight bowling and fielding.

Lamb was again instrumental with the ball, taking 4/15 in her four overs with Sophie Ecclestone taking 3/6 in her spell.

Cross also bowled a miserly spell conceding just eight runs from her four overs and Kent subsided to 71 all out.

The second game started almost immediately and again Lancashire batted first.

Another solid start of 34 from openers Lamb and Jones was