RIVAL Jennings Ribblesdale League professionals Peter Sleep and and Mark Harvey have been enjoying the banter at Lytham this week - in the same dressing room with Lancashire seconds.

And Read professional Sleep, the county second team captain and coach, admits there will be a more good-natured niggling around when they link up again on Monday for the game against Gloucestershire at Liverpool.

But, in between, the pair will be deadly serious as they come face to face in the Ribblesdale League tomorrow with Read trying to put a major dent in the championship hopes of Harvey and Padiham.

"We've had a bit of a laugh about it and a little niggle at each other. It's all good fun," said Sleep before a vital derby match.

"But Padiham are a really good side and we will have to play well to beat them.

"It's a big game in more ways than one.

"They have to win to keep themselves in with a chance of winning the title again and we badly want to win because we are trying for a top-four finish to get a place in the Lancashire Cup."

Defending champions Padiham went into the double-header weekend just five points adrift of Ribblesdale Wanderers, the team they pipped to the crown last season.

As luck would have it, Read were facing Wanderers this afternoon and were in a position to have a big influence on the eventual outcome of the championship race. But it is their own destiny that concerns them most as they attempt to climb from mid-table into the top flour in demanding circumstances.

Hopes of a Read title challenge have gone but Sleep prefers to reflect on individual performances.

"It has just been a little bit disappointing in that there have been a few games we should have won but we haven't," he said.

"That's been more disappointing than anything else.

"The last six weeks have been hard work because people have been missing through holidays and things like that.

"Unfortunately, you have to put up with that. But, with a bit of luck, maybe we can make the top four."

Padiham beat their neighbours when they clashed earlier in the season but Sleep added: "That game should have been a lot closer than it actually was. So we'll have to see what happens on Sunday."

And, if Padiham continue their title charge at Read's expense, will retribution be exacted in the shape of the county second team batting order come Monday? "You never know," grinned Sleep with a warning glance at his rival across the Lancashire dressing room.

Ribblesdale Wanderers are also involved in an intriguing derby clash tomorrow, against their across-town rivals Clitheroe.

The other members of the top four, Cherry Tree and Great Harwood, have home advantage against opposition from the bottom half of the table.

Sunday's fixtures: Baxenden v Enfield, Cherry Tree v Blackburn N, Clitheroe v Ribblesdale W, Earby v Barnoldswick, Great Harwood v Oswaldtwistle I, Read v Padiham, Settle v Whalley.

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