MICHAEL Kelly quadrupled his amount of senior wickets in one afternoon as BURNLEY won the battle with Blackburn rivals EAST LANCS yesterday.

He was aided by a dry and dusty wicket at The Alexandra Meadows, which made it ideal for the spin bowlers and Kelly took full advantage with 4-31 as East Lancs fell to 146 all out.

Kelly had only taken one previous wicket, remarkably against the league's top batsman, Joe Scuderi.

But while Nelson's pro, who is top of the averages, posted his fourth consecutive not out score for the Lancashire League leaders yesterday, runs were harder to come by for East Lancs and Burnley.

Johann Louw was the home side's top scorer with 32 and Andy McLeod's 52 was the game's best score as Burnley reached their target for the loss of five wickets.

McLeod's knock came from 70 balls and included seven fours and one six. He kept the Burnley innings together when wickets were falling around him, on a wicket which was increasingly kind to the bowlers.

Burnley climbed to fourth in the table following this victory, sending East Lancs slipping to sixth.

LOWERHOUSE inflicted more misery on RISHTON as they romped to five-wicket win over the bottom-placed side.

Matt Marquis, 21, was the star of the show for Matt Hope's men as he marked his breakthrough to the first team with an impressive four-wicket haul.

Former Colne professional Marcus North was drafted into the Lowerhouse line-up as a sub-professional and, after top scoring with 80, he claimed three wickets as the visitors were dismissed for a paltry 102.

But Rishton may have found cheer with the result at Thorneyholme Road as ACCRINGTON failed to pick up any points against league leaders NELSON.

Accrington batted first and were struggling until captain and professional Andre Seymore came in and hit 15 fours and a six on his way to 93 before he was cruelly denied a century.

Seymore had faced just 107 balls in his knock, which came to an end when he was bowled by Danny Kegg.

Matt Wilson succumbed for only nine - caught off the bowling of Joe Scuderi, who secured 10 points for the visitors with his 41 not out after Lee Marshall and Paul Garraghty put on an opening partnership of 128.

In the Rossendale derby at Acre Bottom, RAWTENSTALL gave home side RAMSBOTTOM a reasonably easy afternoon after being bowled out for 107.

Michael Haslam was the destroyer for Ramsbottom with his five-wicket haul, starting with Rawtenstall openers Andy Payne and Chris Cook-Martin - both for 13.

Professional Mike Smith was the visitors' top scorer with just 26, and the wickets fell steadily all afternoon.

Ramsbottom needed just 24.4 overs to rattle off the runs without loss - paid man Jason Arnberger and fellow opener Spencer Woods led the way to a 12-point win.

ENFIELD missed the chance to leap-frog COLNE as both sides push for the top spot, despite making 240.

However, it was in reply to Colne's target of 292.

Professional Ben Higgins had run riot with his 106 but his stint at the crease was ended when he was caught by opposite number Franklin Rose off the bowling of Keith Barker.

Higgins' partnership with David Swarbrick had proved to be the most crucial to securing such a hefty total as together they put on 73.

Enfield's response didn't get off to the best of starts as openers Mas Ahmed and Liam Jackson fell for 17 and 10 respectively.

Rose made amends for his expensive bowling figures by falling just six runs short of his century after being clean bowled by Higgins, who claimed five wickets in total.

Neil Holmes (34) and Andy Barker (47) weighed in with valuable contributions but the tail failed to follow suit and Enfield missed their victory target by 53 runs.

TODMORDEN were successful at Centre Vale despite CHURCH professional Greg Mail hitting a superb 107.

The home side's captain Mark Clayton led by example with an unbeaten 48 and with the help of Simon Barker, with whom he put on an unbroken seventh wicket stand of 73, eased Todmorden through to 198-6.

Church picked up the chase in style with Australian batsman Mail pushing on for his century.

Craig Fergusson also made 55, the pair putting on 146 for the third wicket, but Todmorden managed to hold them up and claim ten points.