ON a day when the sun at last condescended to shine on Acre Bottom Ramsbottom put in one of their gloomiest performances of the season.

Invited to bat on a reasonable track only Nick Riley, Simon Read and, to a lesser extent, Keith Webb, offered any real resistance to Rawtenstall's steady, if unspectacular, attack.

A total of 105 was never going to be enough but one could have expected the Rammy bowlers to have a go at unsettling the opposition batting.

All the Rams faithgul were treated to was a successionof long hops and overpitched deliveries that were despatched to all parts of the ground by Rawtenstall's openers who had the game sewn up in less than 15 overs.

Main beneficiary was professional Hall who hit four 4s and six 6s in his 77 not out.

There was a vastly improved display on Sunday but the Rams still ended up losing due to an outstanding individual performance from Colne's sub-professional Lee Carseldine.

Littleborough's Queensland allrounder was at the crease from the second ball of the innings after Lee Daggett had produced a 'brute' of a delivery to remove opener Ellis.

He almost immediately lost the other opener then had to set about building the innings on a track which offered a lot of pace and bounce.

Showing plenty of patience, running well between the wickets and punishing the overpitched delivery he made an excellent 83 before being eighth man out with the score on 129.

Ramsbottom were then frustrated by an unbroken stand of 43 by Colne's last wicket pair who showed more resilience than their earlier order colleagues.

Ramsbottom needed professional Clarke to make a substantial contribution to see them home but for once the talented Australian found scoring hard to come by against his Antipodean countryman who extracted tremendous pace, bounce and movement out of the wicket.

Still, he had made 39 out of 58 when he was given out lbw with all the Colne players claiming for a catch!

When the Rams slipped to 66 for 5 it looked 'game over'. However, Simon Read had other ideas. Firstly with Lee Daggett, then with Dave Bell, he took the Acre Bottom side to 151 scoring his maiden first team 50 in the process being being bowled going for a big hit.

The remaining batsmen folded quickly, finishing 17 runs short of their target.

Carseldine then received a tremendous ovation as he wearily dragged himself from the field after reeling off 24 overs of genuine pace.

Colne had certainly got their money's worth out of him!

RAMSBOTTOM v RAWTENSTALL

RAMSBOTTOM

M. Clarke c Hanson b Hall...4

N. Riley lbw Payne...30

K. Webb lbw Payne...14

J. Harrison c Hanson b Roscoe...0

A. Bell b Roscoe...3

L. Daggett c Hanson b Roscoe...6

M. Price lbw Roscoe...4

S. Read b Hall...24

D. Bell b Payne...0

R. Hevingham c Hall b Roscoe...5

C. Eardley not out...0

Extras...15

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Total 105

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41.3 overs

A. Hall 11.3-3-18-2; A. Payne 19-3-47-3; K. Roscoe 11-3-27-5.

RAWTENSTALL

C. Cook-Martin not out...26

A. Hall not out...77

Extras...3

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Total (for 0) 106

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14.5 overs

L. Daggett 5-1-31-0; M. Clarke 4-0-39-0; M. Price 3-0-14-0; S. Read 2.5-0-20-0.

COLNE v RAMSBOTTOM

COLNE

J. Ellis c Hevingham b Daggett...0

M. Wilson c Read b Eardley...0

L. Carseldine c Riley b Price...83

G. Hunt c Clarke b Daggett...17

A. Roberts not out...0

S. Woods c Webb b Read...9

D. Swarbrick c Clarke b Daggett...0

G. Laycock c Daggett b Price...9

N. Moulding not out...30

D. Spokes lbw Read...0

M. Constable not out...11

Extras...14

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Total (for 9) 173

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50 overs

L. Daggett 19-3-61-3; C. Eardley 5-1-22-1; S. Read 18-1-60-2; M. Price 8-1-25-2.

RAMSBOTTOM

M. Clarke lbw Carseldine...39

N. Riley b Moulding...9

K. Webb b Moulding...0

J. Harrison c Roberts b Ellis...8

A. Bell c Roberts b Carseldine...0

L. Daggett b Carseldine...6

S. Read b Moulding...54

M. Price lbw Roberts...0

D. Bell b Moulding...17

R. Hevingham run out...0

C. Eardley not out...1

Extras...22

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Total 156

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48.2 overs

N. Moulding 11.2-1-45-4; L. Carseldine 24-10-48-3; J. Ellis 9-2-31-1; A. Roberts 4-0-23-1.