Last ball heartache for Rishton

Rishton's Worsley Cup adventure ended with the heartbreak of a last ball defeat at Todmorden in the semi final. Needing six to win off the final ball, Jon Henderson smashed the ball over the ropes to win the match for the home side who had collapsed after looking set for a comfortable victory.

Rishton made 234-3 with professional Kumar Dharmasena hitting 90 and Peter Sleep an unbeaten 74 but Todmorden fought back well with professional Gyan Pandey hitting 80 and skipper Stuart Priestley 59 to need just 31 with 7 wickets remaining.

Sleep and Dharmasena started picking up wickets as five fell for the addition of just 11 runs. Going into the final over bowled by Dharmasena, Tomorden needed nine for victory with three wickets standing. The Sri Lankan bowled both Ben Sutcliffe and Paul Brierley off his first two balls but was denied a match winning hat-trick by Dave Hatton. It came down to the final ball with six needed when Henderson somehow pulled off the shot of a lifetime to win the match for his side.

Rishton were the only local winners on Saturday, beating Accrington by 5 wickets at Blackburn Road. Professional Kumar Dharmasena hit an unbeaten 100 with opener Richard Rostron adding 51 in a 2nd wicket stand of 139 after Accrington had posted 214-6. Stuart Crabtree hit a career best unbeaten 72 with Mohsin Ahmed adding 55 and Zahir Afzal 40 in just 34 balls but another failure by professional Tama Canning meant that the league's bottom side were unable to post a big enough total to give Accrington a chance of victory.

Enfield were on the receiving end of a big East Lancs total at Dill Hall Lane. Paul Turner hit an unbeaten 111 in the visitors 232-8 with home skipper David Bracewell taking 3-52. It needed a big innings from professional Alviro Peterson but the South African fell for just 19 as Enfield finished up 77 runs short of victory. Neil Holmes and Andrew Windle both made 34 but Nas Iqbal was the man of the hour taking 6-58 for the visitors.

Church went down to a 4 wicket defeat at Acre Bottom against league leaders Ramsbottom. Professional Ruvin Peiris made 53 but again it was an amateur bowler who did the damage with Mike Haslam taking 7-63 to dismiss Church for 160. Nick Westwell ripped the top three out but at 69-4, professional Kartik Murali hit 60 to take his side to another victory.

Ribblesdale League leaders Great Harwood saw their lead cut to five points by Settle who moved into second spot after a 19 run win at Cliffe Park. Paul Ridgway took 6-38 to dismiss Harwood for 125 after Settle had made 144.

Former Accrington skipper Nick Marsh hit an unbeaten 94 to take Read to a 9 wicket win at New Lane. Will Driver hit 74 and sub professional Tushare Arothe an unbeaten 49 after Immanuel had made 217-8 with professional Ahmer Saeed hitting an unbeaten 106.

Half centuries from Mark Rishton and Simon Payne took Baxenden to a 3 wicket win over Blackburn Northernat Back Lane after the visitors had been dismissed for 161.