JUSTIN Kemp's timely intervention sent Enfield to the top of the Lancashire League yesterday with a nine-run win over Church.

The sub pro stepped in with five wickets to halt Church at a time when they were heading for victory at 150-1, chasing the home side's target of 218-8.

Aussie Greg Mail was in his usual ominous form with 77, but when Kemp clean bowled him, the rest of the side collapsed to a total of 209.

Mark Aspin hit 61, while Kemp's 5-55 was backed up by 2-34 from Keith Barker, who, bizarrely, was dismissed first ball twice, both as a batsman and as a runner for his brother Andy.

Enfield's top scores came from Liam Jackson with 64 and Mas Ahmed's 62 as the opening batsmen shared a stand of 122 to give the new leaders a strong start.

Church's Andy Bentley took the match's best bowling figures of 6-28.

Bowler Danny Kegg was the man in form as NELSON went second in the table and ended LOWERHOUSE'S run of form.

The Liverpool Road side were looking for their sixth win on the bounce, but they were upended by Kegg, who took 6-68 to keep his side in second place.

Nelson set a solid target of 225-4 as opener Lincoln Marshall scored his first century (106). The Aussie's opening stand of 132 with Paul Garaghty provided the platform for victory.

Professional Joe Scuderi chipped in with an unbeaten 37 for the visitors.

In reply, Lowerhouse put up a brave effort with Chris Bleazard - who last week passed the 10,000 runs total - hitting a valuable 38.

Matt Hope, Charlie Cottam and Jonathan Finch all made useful contributions, but the home side finished 14 runs short.

Professional Pierre Joubert smacked 10 fours and a six as his unbeaten century in just 118 balls sent Burnley to third.

The South African, who finished on 100 not out in Burnley's 257-7, then played a vital role in ruining COLNE'S reply.

He dismissed their pro Ben Higgins for 37, which turned out to be their top score as Colne were all out for 140, although it was mainly thanks to David Connolly's haul of 5-35.

HASLINGDEN'S climb up the ladder continued as they notched a seven wicket win at RISHTON - their sixth successive league victory.

The home side batted first and made 206-7 with their Kiwi professional Rob Nicol hitting an unbeaten 88.

He was given good support by Jonathon Dobson who notched 57 - the pair making 101 in their fifth wicket stand.

However, the Blackburn Road club were kept in check by Haslingden's guest professional as former Lancashire and England player Ian Austin claimed three victims for 66 runs in his 25 over spell.

But Haslingden's hero was opener Graham Knowles who scored 108 not out.

Along with Austin, who scored 68, he firmly hammered the nails into Rishton's coffin with a confident display - the pair put on 131 for the second wicket with the partnership only being broken when Nicol, who took 3-52, bowled out the professional.

It means that Haslingden are now fifth in the table, eight points behind leaders Enfield, while defending champions BACUP are just a point ahead of them after they posted the biggest score of the day and duly recorded a 47-run victory over TODMORDEN at Centre Vale.

Their professional Shaun Young scored 127 as Bacup realised 259-6, good support coming from Peter Thompson and Tim Farragher, who both scored 45.

Todmorden did their damndest to make a fight of it with experienced batsman Brian Heywood setting the example with a fine unbeaten 90, but even though he and their Indian professional Gyandera Pandey stayed together, they failed to match the required scoring rate.

Pandey ended up unbeaten on 74 as the pair had an unbroken stand of 142 for the third wicket but it wasn't enough.

And the Centre Vale club could have additional worries as their prolific wicket-taker, spinner Ibra Ali, was forced to stop bowling on the penultimate ball of his 22nd over after splitting one of his fingers.

EAST LANCS appeared to be very much in control at 181-2 but RAMSBOTTOM reduced them to 222-7 before picking off the runs for the loss of four wickets.

Johann Louw scored 84 from 99 balls while Phil Turner's 59 took 89 balls.

Brian Taylor then dominated for Rammy with his unbeaten 62 from 82 balls, while Keith Webb's 65 took him 97 balls and Jason Arnberger's 61 was from just 67 balls, both hitting eight fours.

Andrew Payne struck 11 fours and a six as his 98 helped RAWTENSTALL to 213-8 and a 36-run victory over ACCRINGTON.

Accrington's Andre Seymore added 77 runs to his five-wicket haul but fellow pro Mike Smith also took five victims as the visitors were reduced to 177-9.