Ribblesdale League

TWO wins from a double header weekend kept Cherry Tree on track for the Vaux Ribblesdale League Championship.

Only Clitheroe stand a chance of catching the Preston Old Road club and, after slipping up against the top outfit on Saturday, they bounced back with maximum points against Read and stand just six points behind the leaders.

Cherry Tree scraped home with eight wickets down after Clitheroe set a target of 166-7, Andrew Robinson scoring a half-century.

A magnificent unbeaten 49 from Gary Bolton helped the leaders recover from 86-6 and three runs were needed from the final over for victory.

Bolton needed two from Clitheroe professional Jonathan Fielding's final ball and managed to scamper home after a lofted drive over mid on.

Things were really hotting up in the race for third place with Great Harwood, Padiham and Earby sharing the spot at the end of Saturday while Edenfield were just one point off the pace. Great Harwood dropped six catches as they went down to Whalley despite a superb 58 from Chris Killen. Dave O'Neill captured six wickets for 79 runs.

Padiham also missed out on the points despite 52 from professional Mark Harvey, but it was Blackburn Northern pro Chetan Sharma who started a super weekend with 87.

Jonathan Harvey was also on-form cracking 70 runs as Earby took a seven wicket victory over Ribblesdale Wanderers.

Settle suffered the first of two crushing defeats after they looked to be strolling to victory over Edenfield. The Dales side were within striking distance of the points with Mark Verden (79) top scoring before an avalanche of wickets - nine in the space of 19 runs - fell to give Edenfield the win.

Professional John Ashley (52) and Kershaw (65) set up the win for the Rossendale club. Baxenden bowled out Oswaldtwistle Immanuel for 198 with Roger Watson (66) and skipper Gerard Metcalf (58) leading the batting. After professional David Usher was out for 52, Baxenden had to hang on to prevent Immanuel taking the extra bonus points.

An undefeated century from Shaid Nawaz saw Read to victory over Barnoldswick.

Cherry Tree's run continued on Sunday with Hughes taking 5-74 as they defeated Oswaldtwistle - but only just.

Restricted to 143, Metcalf led the reply with 39 before the home side fell just 17 runs short of victory.

And Great Harwood bounced back with a three wicket win against Barnoldswick as wickets mysteriously fell on a perfect batting track.

Edenfield made their move for third place with a victory over Earby despite a sparkling half century from Applegarth captain Stephen Hipgrave who was batting with a broken finger. Nigel Franklin scored 66 for Edenfield.

Padiham were left regretting a weekend without a win after Usher scored a century to give Baxenden the edge. Settle suffered their second collapse of the weekend and were dismissed for 88 with Blackburn pro Chetan Sharma taking 7-20 after scoring 92 not out. Jonathan Fielding captured eight wickets for 82 runs as Read were dismissed for 186 with Sam Marshall scoring 61 after Andy Robinson's 84 had already put Clitheroe in the driving seat.

Mark Fallon scored 108 and Russell Austin 50no as Whalley grabbed maximum points from Ribblesdale Wanderers who were dismissed just 12 runs short of victory.

Scores (Saturday): Barnoldswick 139-8, Read 181-4 (5 pts); Clitheroe 166-7, Cherry Tree 167-8 (5); Great Harwood 148, Whalley 169-6 (7); Oswaldtwistle Imm 198 (5), Baxenden 115-9 (2); Padiham 185, Blackburn Northern 250-5 (7); Ribblesdale Wdrs 131, Earby 134-3 (7); Settle 174, Edenfield 188-7 (7).

Sunday: Baxenden 200-6 (5), Padiham 194-6; Earby 183, Edenfield 211-7 (7); Great Harwood 116-7 (5), Barnoldswick 114-8; Oswaldtwistle Imm 128-9, Cherry Tree 143-8 (5); Read 186, Clitheroe 216-9 (7); Settle 88, Blackburn Northern 181-5 (7); Whalley 194-4 (7), Ribblesdale Wdrs 183.

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