RADCLIFFE Cricket Club sounded their title intentions with a maximum ten-point haul to put them in great shape for Sunday's Wood Cup semi-final against Walsden.

An excellent weekend for the Racecourse outfit saw them defeat high-riding Rochdale and Royton.

It was a remarkable historical victory at Redbrook on Saturday in which Radcliffe slaughtered one-time leaders Rochdale.

They got off to an excellent start and after 10 overs were on an excellent score of 42 with Heaton and Keegan both pulling off some nice shots.

They formed an excellent partnership of 80 before Heaton was dismissed on 25.

Radcliffe professional Steve Dearden came in next and he and Keegan put on a few more runs very quickly, with Keegan reaching his first 50 of the season before being dismissed for 52.

Dearden stuck to form as he reached his 50 and by this point Radcliffe were looking to run up a huge score. Ramsbottom was then dismissed for 13 and Bruce Cruse came to the crease. Cruse got off to a flying start, but Dearden was dismissed for 73 soon after.

Kennedy then took the strike and his 18 from 12 balls and Cruse's 25 off 29 balls brought Radcliffe up to a huge total of 245 for five off their allocated 50 overs, leaving Rochdale's professional with staggering figures of 2 for 97.

After the usual great tea it was Rochdale's turn to bat. The Rochdale batsmen didn't make any great impact on the Radcliffe bowling as Kennedy and Holt both took four wickets apiece to dismiss Rochdale for 163.

On Sunday Radcliffe took on Royton at home, but this time Radcliffe lost Keegan for a duck with the score on 12.

Dearden got off to an excellent start, hitting a six before he was dismissed for 12.

Bruce Cruse was next in to bat and he and Heaton formed an excellent partnership that brought 74 runs before Heaton was run out just two short of his 50. Cruse stayed at the crease, hitting a variety of excellent shots and eventually reached his 50 from 79 balls.

His form carried on until he reached 91 before he was caught out and Radcliffe ended their innings on an excellent 195 for nine.

Royton started their innings poorly and quick wickets were taken with Shah taking two in one over, one of them Royton's Indian professional Bhava.

In the next over Dearden's rapid bouncer scared the batsmen and Webb edged the penultimate ball of the over, another bouncer, high into the air, producing an excellent catch from Macauley.

Leading wicket-taker Kennedy took over from Dearden and notched another four scalps before Dearden came back to finish off the tail as Royton were dismissed for 110.

STAND slumped to a four-wicket defeat in their game against Werneth on Saturday.

Batting first, Stand were bowled out for 121, with only opener Flegg and lower order batsman Wilkinson managing anything like a respectable score, with knocks of 22 and 31 respectively.

The exotically-named Fernando did the damage with ball for Werneth, taking six Stand wickets for 43 runs from his 18 overs.

Only Foreman with three wickets for 41, posed any real threat to the Werneth batsmen as they reached their target comfortably thanks to solid shows from Fernando (42), Durose (20no) and Lees (23no).

On Sunday, Norden professional Mujtaba did a lot of the damage as Stand were beaten by nine wickets. The Pakistani paid man took three for 39 as Stand were dismissed for 132 and then went on to smack an unbeaten 67 to take his side to a comfortable victory.

UNSWORTH slumped to defeat against Rochdale despite a fine innings of 42 from John Harrison and four-wicket hauls by Alan Haworth and professional Wanansinghe.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, Rochdale batted solidly and took advantage of some leg side bowling from Wanasinghe, whose 13 overs cost 55 runs.

Howarth was a model of economy. Using changes of pace, good length and line, his first 13 overs cost 30 runs and brought him two wickets.

After this there was more direction to the bowling, but vital catches were missed which proved costly.

The scoring rate was pulled back and as wickets started to fall, Unsworth took more control and by the end of the Rochdale innings, 191 did not seem an inordinately large total.

Unsworth began their reply with Keith Webb opening with Saeed. This gave Alan Haworth some time to rest.

In the opening 10 overs, Unsworth rattled up 39 before suffering a double blow as they lost both their openers without adding to the total.

The next 10 overs produced just 12 runs and with the loss of Wanansinghe, Unsworth lost their momentum.

Paul Manley came and went before Mark Joynson came in for his first batting appearance for the first team in five years.

He and John Harrison added a careful 57 before Harrison was caught on the boundary after scoring 42.

Alan Howarth took over and he and Joynson added 39 in 26 minutes before Joynson was stumped for 32.

Howarth was dismissed for 32 also and with Steve Barlow and Steve Sherring trying to score 11 off the last over, Unsworth fell five runs short.