RAIN caused the abandonment of all matches on the first day of the new Northern Premier League season on Saturday.

But not before Leyland Motors grabbed eight points in their match against Kendal

Motors secured a winning draw at Thurston Road before the rain came after tea.

Motors batted first and slumped to 10 for 3 before Steve Cartwright came to the crease and scored an invaluable 82 in his first half-century for the club.

Aspinall 49, Cummings 25, and captain David Makinson 21 added their support to help Motors to a score of 203 for 8 off 57 overs.

At the end of 23 overs Kendal had reached 69 for 3 with Terry Hunte on 30 not out and Khabir Khan scored 28. David Makinson, who returned 3 for 25 off 11 overs, said: "While Terry Hunte is at the crease you can never be over confident, but I think we would have won today if it hadn't been for the weather."

Leyland's new professional, the Pakistani international Moin Ul Atiq did not have much chance to make an impression in his debut at Lancaster.

New captain Alex Mercer won the toss and put the home side into bat. At the end of their 57 overs Lancaster had reached 172 for 5. Leyland only faced eight overs and reached 18 without loss when the rain came.

Preston professional Raouf Akbar took 6 wickets for 55 to limit Chorley to a total of 190. They could only manage to score 32 for 2 before the match was abandoned.