RAMSBOTTOM had a record breaker in their ranks against East Lancs - but Simon Read's prodigious effort with the ball wasn't enough to bowl the Lancashire League leaders over.

Read's magnificent haul of 9-41 is reckoned to be the best post-war return by a Ramsbottom amateur, but, unfortunately, the Rammy batsmen couldn't follow it up.

Chasing a less than formidable total of 118, Ramsbottom still managed to finish 16 runs short of victory, which put East Lancs on 172 points, five points clear of second-placed Nelson.

Read still had plenty of reasons to smile, especially as he had only two wickets to his name this season before the visit to East Lancs and had never managed more than a brace in a first team game. There was no indication of what was to come as Read started with two wides in three balls. But he soon swung into action to leave East Lancs reeling.

Professional Claude Henderson was caught down the legside, then Read moved the ball around superbly and was only prevented from taking all ten wickets by Matthew Pascoe's early dismissal of Andy Clague.

At one point Reid had claimed 7-17 with a measly eight runs coming off the bat. Only a 43-run ninth wicket partnership between Phil Mercer and Mark Egan enabled East Lancs to claw their way to their final total.

Read followed up in the Ramsbottom innings with a partnership of 29 with Spencer Woods after the visitors had languished on 50-7.

They took the attack to Henderson before Read went for 16, Woods became Henderson's fifth victim having scored 19 and when last man Liam Daggett was run out for six it was all over for Ramsbottom.

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