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.

Thier 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.

RISHTON 206-7 HASLINGDEN 211-3

Rishton 0 pts, Haslingden 10 pts

RISHTON

D Eccles b Austin...22

P Allen c Smith b Dearden...0

Nicol not out...88

S Wyse b Austin...7

R Rostron lbw b Austin...0

J Dobson run out...57

T Whalley b Catterall...6

S Greaves b Catterall...0

J Davies not out...2

Extras...24

Total (7 wkts)...206

Bowling: Austin 25-6-66-3, J Dearden 7-0-37-1, T Reid 6-1-27-0, S Catterall 12-2-58-2

HASLINGDEN

G Knowles not out...108

M Ingham c Proctor b Nicol...10

Austin b Nicol...68

S Dearden c Sibley b Nicol...18

P Blackledge not out...0

Extras...7

Total (3 wkts)...211

Bowling: S Greaves 7-036-0, Nicol 11-1-52-3, C Sibley 7.2-1-58-0, J Davies 4-0-34-0, R Rostron 2-0-24-0.

TODMORDEN 212-2 BACUP 259-6

Todmorden 1 pt, Bacup 10 pts

BACUP

P Thompson c Sutcliffe b Pandey...45

D Ayres lbw b Pandey...14

Young c Brierley b Pandey...127

M O'Connor b Ali...4

T Farragher st Sutcliffe b Priestley...45

J Chapman run out...0

P Gallagher not out...12

P Killalea Not out...0

Extras...12

Total (6 wkts)...259

Bowling: I Ali 21.5-3-103-1, Pandey 25-4-108-3, D Whitehead 0.1-0-0-0, M Clayton 2-0-28-0, S Priestley 1-0-8-1

TODMORDEN

S Priestley b Ormerod...25

B Sutcliffe c and b Ormerod...14

B Heywood not out...90

Pandey not out...74

Extras...9

Total (2 wkts) 212

Bowling: Young 7-3-15-0, D Ormerod 25-2-102-2, S Crowe 8-1-30-0, T Farragher 10-0-59-0