Kemm stars with five wickets as Haslingden beat Great Harwood

THE Haslingden first XI took on Great Harwood at Bentgate on a windy Sunday with rain forecast for later in the afternoon.

Great Harwood won the toss and decided to bat first.

Shortly before the game started, Haslingden wicketkeeper Mark Groom injured his knee and could not play.

An emergency call was made to Ethan Stanton who was with the second team at Great Harwood and he set off back to Bentgate with Niall Clarke going in the opposite direction to play for the 2nd XI.

Graham Knowles took the gloves for the first few overs and Oliver Gardner (who was supposed to be scoring) sub fielded until Stanton arrived.

Joe Sipocz and Oliver Lord opened the bowling for Haslingden and got off to a good start with Lord taking two wickets and Sipocz taking one to reduce Great Harwood to 19-3.

The Great Harwood professional Thikshila de Silva and Zeain Ali put on 32 for the fourth wicket before Haslingden subprofessional Ernest Kemm removed de Silva, well caught by Jordan Shannon in the slips.

Kemm took another three quick wickets to take the score to 70-7 before Nazakat Hussain and Faheem Basharat hit out to put on a quickfire 42 and Great Harwood were 112 when Basharat was caught by Oliver Nicholls off the bowling of Matthew Griffin.

Hussain followed shortly afterwards, superbly caught in the deep by Oliver Lord off the bowling of Kemm.

The last wicket offered little resistance and Great Harwood were bowled out for a total of 115.

Ernest Kemm was the pick of the Haslingden bowlers, taking 5-23 off his 14 overs.

In their reply Haslingden’s Graham Knowles hit an excellent 63 not out from 61 balls, with 10 fours and one six and he was ably supported by Ernest Kemm who finished 23 not out.

Haslingden reached their target for the loss of one wicket in 16.5 overs.

Twelve points to Haslingden.

There then followed a magnificent fourth-wicket partnership of 101 between Chris Gansler and Matt Collinge.

Wicketkeeper Gansler scored 44, a personal best, whilst Collinge made his first senior Lancashire League half-century, finishing on a highly impressive 94 not out.

Matt Thompson also returned to form with 28 not out, helping to take the total to 213 for four in the allotted 50 overs.

In reply Colne lost wickets on a fairly regular basis but were never too far behind the required run rate.

Professional James Price was threatening to win the game single handedly but with his score on 84 and the team score on 173 for six, he played a rash shot to Aspinall and Ben Lord clung onto the catch.

In an exciting climax which could have gone either way, with the impending rain also threatening to have a say, Naylor and Bradford took a vital wicket each to leave Colne 10 runs short on 203 all out.

This was a fantastic team effort which