GREAT Harwood move up into top spot following their 10-4 away win at Rishton Con, Malcolm Wensley winning 21-11 and Harry Moles winning 21-13 for Rishton Con.

Colne Cricket drop to second place three points adrift of the leaders after their narrow 8-6 defeat at Globe. Bill Finn won 21-7 for Globe with Stuart Marshall winning 21-8 for Colne. St Andrew's remain in third place following their 10-4 home defeat of Turton, Peter Harrison and Simon Willcocks both recorded 21-11 home win, John Haslam won 21-18 for Turton.

Sunnybank move up into fourth place after their 12-2 win at Nelson, Peter Connelly winning 21-6 and Howard Bond winning 22-20 for Nelson. Darwen Subs are in fifth place. They had a 10-4 home win over Haslingden, Roy Pickup winning 21-5 for Subs and Ian McNeill winning 21-0 for Haslingden. East Lancs won 10-4 at Mortfield, Paul Sutcliffe winning 21-10 and Peter Consterdine winning 21-6 for the home side. Farington Con had a 10-4 home win over Greenhill, Graham Parkington winning 21-12 and Alan Marsden winning 21-11 for Greenhill.

St Stephen's had a narrow 8-6 home win over Edgworth, Peter Irving winning 21-2 and Mike Willians won 21-11 for Edgworth.

Results: Nelson 2, Sunnybank 12; Darwen Subs 10, Haslingden 4; Globe 8, Colne Cricket 6; St Stephen's 8, Edgworth 6; Farington Con 10, Greenhill 4; Mortfield 4, East Lancs 10; St Andrew's 10, Turton 4; Rishton Con 4, Gt Harwood 10.

It is an early start for bowlers next week with league matches starting at 9.30am.

Games for Sunday: Sunnybankv Darwen Subs; Edgworth v Farington Con; Gt Harwood v Globe; Colne Cricket v Mortfield; Greenhill v Nelson; Turton v Rishton Con; East Lancs v St Andrews; Haslingen v St Stephen's.

First round matches in the Team Knockout competition will be played at noon: Mortfield v Darwen Subs (at Greenhill); St Andrew's v St Stephen's (Edgworth); Colne Cricket v East Lancs (Globe); Greenhill v Rishton Con (Sunnybank); Gt Harwood v Edgworth (Darwen Subs); Haslingden v Globe (Nelson); Turton v Nelson (Gt Harwood); Farington Con v Sunnybank (Rishton Con).

MERIT COMPETITION: John Bentley (Darwen Subs) 132, Alan Handford (Colne Cricket) 114, Paul Sutcliffe (East Lancs) 112, Simon Willcocks (St Andrew's) 101, Norman Hill (Gt Harwood) 101, Malcolm Wensley (Gt Harwood) 100, David Fryer (East Lancs) 98, Glyn Shuttleworth (Colne Cricket) 94, Tony Dobson (Gt Harwood) 91, Peter Consterdine (Mortfield) 90.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.