Blackburn Northern under 11s are the first winners of this year's borough indoor six-a-side Cricket championships.

Northern beat Darwen in the age group finals and will now take part in the Lancashire championships in May.

The first grand final of the series, which was again organised by Blackburn and Darwen Cricket Development Group, brought together Blackburn Northern, Darwen, Feniscowles and Whalley.

All four had qualified from a series of heats at Shadsworth Leisure Centre.

Tight bowling and effective batting was the key for Northern who beat Feniscowles in the first semi final to book a place in the final.

There they met Darwen who saw off the stubborn resistence of a battling Whalley team.

Blackburn Northern didn't lose a single wicket in the semi final and only lost one in the final itself. Mohammed Patel and Mohammed Hussain proved to be Northern's best batting pair as they helped their club to a net total of 241.

It was a total that was well within Darwen's grasp and Alex Davies proved to be their best batsman of the day. However, Blackburn Northern's tight bowling frustrated Darwen who, despite scoring frequently, they lost too many wickets and finished with a net total of 220.

Blackburn Northern will now represent the borough in the Lancashire finals which are scheduled to be held in Blackburn in May.

It is the first time the club has succeeded at this level and that has been done to funding and a recruitment drive.

For the club obtained cash from the Children's Fund to enable them to go in to the wards of Audley and Brookhouse to coach players.

Manager Simon Emery said: "There are a lot of youngsters in those wards where cricket is the first game. We went in and did some coaching and now that had begun to pay dividends."

The winning Northern team also included Adil Hussain, Ibrar Hussain, Mohammed Bhada, Aqib Butt and Jack Taylor.

The under 13s competition begins on Friday at St Wilfrid's High School with East Lancs, Whalley, and Darwen 'A' all taking part. The under 15s event gets under way on Sunday.