For the Rams
and Bacup two bowling points.
Bacup’s T20 match at Milnrow on Friday night was called off without a ball being bowled, the team’s taking one point each for a no result. The third eleven game at home to Clitheroe also fell victim to the weather and will hopefully be replayed at some point.
After a washout on Saturday which resulted in their Third XI’s game at Lowerhouse being called off, Haslingden First XI took on Milnrow at Bentgate on an overcast Sunday with rain forecast for late afternoon.
Milnrow won the toss and decided to bat.
In an eventful start to the game Joe Sipocz and Oliver Lord opened the bowling for Haslingden and got off to a good start with Sipocz taking two wickets in his four over spell, Lord bowled an excellent five over opening spell with no luck.
In the 25th over the Milnrow professional Asif Zakir who had been dropped on 6, middled the ball straight back at Haslingden’s sub-professional Neels Bergh who was bowling his first over, and Bergh’s finger was dislocated resulting in a trip to hospital to put it back into place.
Lord came back onto bowl to finish his over.
Shortly afterwards Lord deservedly started taking wickets initially having the professional caught behind by Mark Groom for 32.
There was then little resistance from the rest of the Milnrow batsmen as Lord ripped through the middle order and ran out opener George Park who had battled well for his 28. Sean Hunsley came back on towards the end to have Adnan Shafique the only other Milnrow player to reach double figures, well caught by Matthew Griffin for 20.
Milnrow were all out for 144 in the 48th over.
Oliver Lord took his best figures to date in the Lancashire League with five wickets for 21 runs, Joe Sipocz with 2 for 22 runs and Sean Hunsley with 2 for 27 runs were the pick of the bowlers.
Haslingden’s struggles with the bat this season continued at the start of their innings and they were reduced to 21 for 4 when Joe Sipocz, batting up the order in the absence of Neels Bergh, was out for 3.
After a speedy trip back from hospital Bergh returned to the ground shortly before Sipocz was out and with his finger heavily strapped up he went in at number 8 to join Garry Sudworth when Haslingden were 49-6.
After 30 overs the players were taken off the field because of rain, at that stage the Duckworth Lewis par score was 100 and Haslingden were 112-6.
The rain delay resulted in a loss of 11 overs and there was a revised target of 130 when Haslingden resumed their innings.
Haslingden reached the new target with four overs to spare scoring 133 for 6 with Garry Sudworth scoring the final four runs to bring up his 50.
Sudworth finished on 52 not out and Bergh was 25 not out. Twelve points to Haslingden who move up to second place in the table.
Rishton overcame Great Harwood at Blackburn Road after picking up a four wicket win.
Great Harwood won the toss and decided to bat, with professional Thikshila de Silva making 91 runs in 80 balls to help his side finish on 211-8 in 50 overs.
Rishton reached their target with three balls to spare, as Bradley Boddie hit an unbeaten half century to help his side end on 216-6 and claim the win.
Littleborough came up short against Nelson after a one wicket defeat at Seedhill.
Littleborough won the toss and decided to bat first, but were bowled all out for just 110 after five batsmen scored to fail a single run.
Nelson looked to easily be on course to a victory after they were 103-4 at one stage, but a collapse saw them then fall to 1089.
They managed to win though, ending on 111-9 to condemn Littleborough to defeat.
Enfield’s match with Middleton ended in a no result, with the rain causing the match to be abandoned midway through the Middleton innings after Enfield had earlier posted a total of 201-6 after 50 overs.
Elsewhere in Division Two, Colne came out on top after they picked up a six wicket victory over East Lancashire at Alexandra Meadows.
The latest round of Twenty20 fixtures were hit by the weather this past week, with none of the fixtures managing to overcome the heavy rain.