Crucial factor
urday which resulted in the Third XI’s game against Clitheroe being called off, Haslingden’s First XI took on Littleborough at Hare Hill on an overcast Sunday with rain forecast.
Haslingden won the toss and captain Joe Sipocz decided to bowl. Sipocz and Oliver Lord opened the bowling for Haslingden and got off to a good start with Sipocz taking three wickets in his seven over spell. After 20 overs the rain came down with Littleborough on 45-3 and three overs were lost.
Shortly after the players came back onto the field, the Haslingden sub-professional Sehan Weerasinghe bowled the Littleborough professional Travis Townsend for 14 to reduce them to 58-4.
Haslingden could not make any further breakthrough and after 37 overs with the score on 105-4 rain interrupted the game again and a further eight overs were lost.
When the rain abated Littleborough were able to come back on for two final overs and finished on 115-4 in 39 overs. Sipocz with 3 for 22 was the pick of the Haslingden bowlers, his first wicket taken with the worst ball of the match and his second with the best ball of the match!
Haslingden’s revised target in 39 overs under the Duckworth Lewis method was 146. Graham Knowles and Matthew Sudworth opened the batting.
Wickets went down steadily under darkening skies but Knowles batted well for his 45 before he was caught at extra cover trying to get ahead of the D/L par score.
When his wicket fell in the 22nd over the score was 70-5 but as a result of the fall of the wicket the par score increased from 72 to 79.
Sean Hunsley was next to go bowled for 11 in the 25th over trying to get ahead of the par score.
Haslingden were 80-6 with the par score increasing from 81 to 92.
After 25.1 overs the umpires finally brought the players off as the rain became heavier and Haslingden were 82-6 the par score being 93 at that stage.
It was not possible to get back onto the field and victory was Littleborough’s. Ten points to Littleborough and four points to Haslingden.
Rawtenstall earned a victory at the Worswick Memorial Ground after a 32 run win over Rishton via the Duckworth/Lewis method.
Rawtenstall batted first after Rishton won the toss, and they finished on 216-4 after 50 overs thanks to good totals from Peter Killelea (64), professional Jovaun van Wyngaardt (50 not out), Jake Errey (45 not out) and Tabassum Aziz (42).
Rishton were set a reduced target of 135 in 31 overs, but they could only finish on 102-5, with Rawtenstall earning a comfortable win.
Great Harwood triumphed after a 15 run win via the Duckworth/Lewis method over Nelson at Cliffe Park.
Great Harwood batted first after Nelson won the toss, and they finished on 144-7 from a reduced 45 overs. Nelson’s target was 86 runs in 24 overs, but they couldn’t reach the total, ending on 70-5 to hand Great Harwood the win.
Milnrow suffered a defeat after losing by seven wickets against East Lancashire at Ladyhouse.
East Lancs won the toss and decided to field first, and they were able to bowl Milnrow all out for 91.
East Lancs eased to their target, needing just 25 overs to end on 96-3 and earn the convincing win.
Elsewhere in Division Two, Middleton picked up a 55 run victory on the Du c k w o r t h / L e w i s method over Colne at the Horsfield.
There were only a handful of Twenty20 matches that managed to overcome the weather during the weekend, with Church earning a 10 wicket win over Great Harwood, Rishton defeating East Lancs by 27 runs, Enfield losing by six wickets against Lowerhouse, Milnrow losing by 10 wickets against Todmorden, and Clitheroe defeating Colne by 10 wickets.