LEADERS East Lancashire were stunned by Burnley to allow defending champions Nelson to close the gap at the top of the EW Cartons Lancashire League.

East Lancashire slumped to a 35-run defeat as 17-year-old quickie James Anderson recorded his first five-wicket haul in the league.

Anderson returned for a second spell in which he recorded figures of 10.5-1-21-5 to rip away the home side's middle order after professional Anthony Botha had done the initial damage.

The title hopefuls were never in the hunt with extras their top score as they were dismissed for just 97.

Earlier Burnley's total of 132 was built around Ian Whitehead's 25, Andy McLeod's 33 and 40 from Ben Law, who marked his return to first-team duty following a broken arm with two and two fours.

On the day Lowerhouse professional Martin Van Jaarsveld passed the 1,000 runs landmark, his thunder was stolen by West End bowlers Matt and Jez Hope, who rolled Rishton over for an embarrassing 31.

Lowerhouse had recovered from a shaky start for Chris Bleazard (68) and Van Jaarsveld (51) to share a third-wicket stand of 112. It set them up for a match-winning total of 191-6.

But Lowerhouse could not have envisaged just how easy it was going to be as Rishton disintegrated to what must be their lowest total for years.

They simply had no answer to Matt Hope (7-21), or Jez (3-8), and had to be thankful for the fact that professional Paul Wiseman (23) scored the bulk of their runs before being ninth man out.

But for him, it could easily have been one of the lowest scores of all time as three men mustered just five between them and that was the total of the amateur batting's pathetic efforts. Ramsbottom recorded their third straight win at the expense of bottom-of-the-table Rawtenstall.

Skipper Brian Taylor led from the front with a top-notch 69 from just 76 balls on a difficult track.

Taylor hit three sixes and nine fours and after his departure Matthew Pascoe and Mark Price maintained the momentum with a 53-run partnership for the sixth wicket as the visitors posted a total of 188.

Rawtenstall never looked likely to get close once professional Billy Stelling gloved behind a sharply rising delivery from Lee Daggett to depart for 10.

And with Price and professional Pascoe sharing seven wickets, Rawtenstall were bundled out for just 110.

Enfield crushed Colne at the Horsfield thanks to a brilliant second wicket stand of 117 between skipper Andy Barker and professional Dave Saker.

Barker hammered 10 fours and two sixes in his 115 ball 83 while Saker weighed in with a run-a-ball 54, including seven boundaries, as the visitors amassed a massive 226-5.

That always looked beyond Colne once professional Joe Scuderi departed for 3 and they were eventually dismissed for just 122 as Neil Holmes picked up 4-43.

Stuart Parker was the Todmorden hero as they beat Church in a low-scoring encounter at Blackburn Road.

The visitors could only muster 116-8 on a difficult track thanks largely to a stubborn 120-ball 41 from teenager Alex Scholefield. But that proved more than enough as Parker picked up 4-34 while James Morgan and professional Brendan Nash also grabbed three victims apiece as Church were skittled for just 71 inside 36 overs.

Bacup dented Haslingden's title hopes with a 17-run win at Lanehead after exploiting the best of the batting conditions.

Andrew Spencer and professional Brad White gave Bacup a solid start with 41 for the first wicket and Peter Thompson and Peter Killelea then added 56 to help the hosts reach 145-5.

Haslingden professional Brad McNamara finished with 3-69 after bowling off-spin for all but three of his 23 overs.

His contribution was also likely to be vital as Haslingden stepped up their reply after Barry Knowles and Pat Lord had put on 45 for the first wicket.

But on 15 McNamara topped-edged a pull from David Ormerod who then exploited the conditions perfectly to finish with 6-41 as the visitors were restricted to 128-8.

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