MICHAEL Clarke's burgeoning reputation as a young international cricketer of massive potential continues apace.
The immensely talented young batsman almost singlehandedly guided the Rams to their second Worsley Cup final with an awesome batting display against Todmorden on Sunday.
A beautiful batting strip, fine weather, a decent crowd and Ramsbottom won the toss.
All the ingredients were there for the young Aussie phenomenon to enhance his already reputation.
With expectations so high and a cup final place at stake there is always the fear of an anticlimax but Clarke brushed all the doubts aside by playing what must be considered one of the finest innings ever to have graced Acre Bottom.
His score of 178, consisting of twenty-one 4's and two 6's, is the highest individual score at the Ramsbottom ground whil the Rams' total of 307 is, as far as can be ascertained, a record for a senior fixture.
Clarke never game a chance before being well caught on the long-off boundary in the 47th over and was really annoyed as he "wanted to go for another double century!"
He shared an opening stand of 150 with Nick Riley who made an excellent 61 and a partnership of 118 with John Harrison.
Todmorden, who had comfortably chased 250 the previous day, needed a rapid start, especially in the first 15 overs when only two fielders are allowed out of the 'circle'.
However, Lee Daggett and Simon Read soon put paid to that with an excellent spell of on-the-spot bowling which kept run scoring tight and accounted for the valuable wicket of Richard Baigent.
It was then a case of bring on the heavyweights as Nick Riley and Mark Price combined to destroy the opposition.
Price finishing with excellent figures of 4 for 19 off his allotted 10 overs.
Ramsbottom were also indebted to some excellent catching in what was undoubtedly their best performance of the season.
They will take on Church in the final of the competition on Sunday, August 11 with fingers crossed that the tie will be played at Acre Bottom.
HIT turned out to be a double celebration for the Rams when their second XI also reached the final of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph Cup by, coincidentally, defeating Todmorden seconds.
Star of the day was Spencer Woods with 126 not out in their 36 run victory.
They will now play Accrington seconds in the final on Saturday, August 3, venue to be arranged.
ON Saturday the Rams cruised to an easy win against bottom of the table Accrington with professional Clarke helping himself to another century.
But the statistics did not show how the Acre Bottom paid man struggled with his form early in the innings.
Indeed fellow opener Nick Riley had 22 runs to his name before Clarke troubled the scorers after receiving 18 balls.
Such is the class of this man that it took him only 69 more deliveries to reach his ton and when his innings came to an end he had ten 4's and three 6's to his name.
An excellent late order partnership between Lee Daggett and David Bell took the Rams to a formidable total of 262 for 8.
Accrington's only hope lay with their South African professional Seymore but when he was trapped leg before by Simon Read with six on the board it was game over.
The fact that the Rams could not gain maximum points by bowling out Accrington was cause for concern as Clifford and Juliff, coming back to bat after initially retiring hurt with cramp, helped themselves to some easy runs before rain brought a premature end to the game.
Simon Read (3-55) and Nick Riley (3-25) were the pick of the Rammy bowlers.
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