HAVING beaten a strong Burnley outfit on Saturday to make it four wins in a row, the Rams came unstuck the following day against Worsley Cup finalists East Lancs.

After losing the toss on Saturday, and being asked to bat on a cloudy day, the Acre Bottom side found runs initially hard to come by with the ball swinging considerably in helpful conditions.

Still openers Arnberger and Woods dug in and took the score to 41 before the amateur was out in the 18th over.

Keith Webb then joined his professional who by this time had adapted to the track, and they took the score onto 116 before Webb departed for a hard earned 25.

Arnberger then started to get into full flow and despite losing a couple of his amateur colleagues cheaply he looked like taking the Ramsbottom score well past 200, until becoming the victim of a very dubious umpiring decision which upset the home spectators.

A final target of 195 looked well within Burnley's reach with their talented line up, but for the second week in a row, Michael Haslam clean bowled the top three amateurs. Price also chipped in with a wicket but while the opposition professional Joubert was still at the crease, Burnley were in the driving seat.

However, when he had reached 40 he tried to pull his Ramsbottom counterpart out of the ground.

Unfortunately for him he got a little underneath his shot and only succeeded in skying it in the square leg direction, where Spencer Woods took a brilliant running catch.

This was the effective end of the game with Price and Arnberger mopping up the tail to secure a maximum points victory.

The following day proved to be a different story, as the Rams became another of the sides to suffer from the explosive batting power of East Lancs South African professional Johann Louw.

When Mark Price took his fourth wicket to leave the home side on 129 for four, with 39 of the 50 overs gone, the Acre Bottom lads looked in full control.

Louw had other ideas and started to smash the ball to all parts of the ground, and mostly got out of it as he reached 102, his second 50 coming off just 20 balls.

Had he been caught at deep mid off when on 61 things could have been different, but his innings inspired amateur John Turner who smashed 43 not out in quick time, as East Lancs added an amazing 115 runs off the last 11 overs.

Clashing such a large target was always going to prove difficult, and the Rams were very much reliant on their pro.

However, when he fell to a brilliant catch having only scored 27, it was game up and despite excellent knocks from Simon Read(45) and Mark Dentith(27), the Rams were always very behind the required run rate, and in the end the last pair batted out the remaining 10 overs to deny East Lancs maximum points.

RAMSBOTTOM v BURNLEY

RAMSBOTTOM

J. Arnberger lbw Joubert...86

S.Woods c Law b Connolly...13

K. Webb lbw Connolly...25

B. Taylor c McLeod b Liebenberg...6

M. Dentith b Leibenberg...3

J. Harrison b Joubert...19

M. Price b Joubert...2

B. Horrocks b Clare...14

S. Read not out...3

M.Haslam not out...1

Extras...22

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Total (for 8) 194

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J. Clare 11-1-39-1; P. Joubert 14-4-30-3; S. Holden 9-2-25-0; D. Connolly 6-0-36-2; M. Kelly 6-0-26-0; R. Leibenberg 4-1-29-2.

BURNLEY

B. Law b Haslam...23

J. Clare b Haslam...11

P. Joubert c Woods b Arnberger...40

A. McLeod b Haslam...8

D. Pickup c Hevingham b Price...0

S. Edmondson c Harrison b Price...7

G. Halley lbw Arnberger...18

D. Connolly c Dentith b Price...17

M. Kelly run out...8

S. Holden c Webb b Arnberger...3

R. Liebenberg not out...0

Extras...14

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Total 149

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M. Haslam 12-0-51-3; M. Price 22.4-2-56-3; J. Arnberger 11-1-35-3.

EAST LANCASHIRE v

RAMSBOTTOM

EAST LANCS

A. Clague c Haslam b Price...6

P. Bolton c Taylor b Price...7

P. Turner c Haslam b Price...26

J. Louw c Webb b Arnberger...102

G. Rose c Harrison b PRice...26

J. Turner not out...43

N. Iqbal c Woods b Haslam...0

P. Mercer run out...0

J. Fairless not out...6

Extras...28

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Total (for 7) 244

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M. Haslam 17-2-81-1; M. Price 21-4-81-4; S. Read 4-1-20-0; J. Arnberger 8-1-55-1.

RAMSBOTTOM

J. Arnbergert c Clague b Iqbal...27

S. Woods c Egan b Iqbal...13

K. Webb c Egan b Louw...1

B. Taylor c Egan b Iqbal...1

S. Read c & b Fairless...45

M. Dentith c & b Fairless...27

J. Harrison c Turner b Doyle...2

M. Price c Bolton bDoyle...8

B. Horrocks c Turner b Fairless...13

M. Haslam not out...15

R. Hevingham not out...15

Extras...11

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Total (for 9) 178

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J. Louw 11-3-24-1; N. Iqbal 14-4-43-3; P. Mercer 5-0-26-0; J. Fairless 12-0-56-3; H. Doyle 6-2-23-2; P. Turner 2-0-4-0.