Worsley Cup semi-final - Burnley v Todmorden

WIN or lose, and either option is still a possibility, Burnley skipper Peter Brown can be forgiven for walking an inch or two taller today.

His team's Jennings Worsley Cup destiny will, weather permitting, be decided at Turf Moor tonight when Todmorden resume batting in the semi-final needing 94 to win from 13 overs with seven wickets remaining.

But, on a day that was both satisfactory and unsatisfactory for all concerned, the glint of paternal pride in the skipper's face was understandable.

At the tender age of just 17, Burnley opener Michael Brown, son of Peter, played the innings of a lifetime to help put his side in the driving seat of a game where the huge entertainment value contrasted sharply with the greyness of the weather.

When play was due to begin at 1.15pm, rain dripped wearily from leaden skies and players and officials of both sides alike were all for calling it a day.

Burnley's stalwart chairman Peter Lawson, at the ground from 10-30am onwards - he finally grabbed a bit of lunch at 3-15pm! - found it hard to summon more than a worried frown and illustrated the quandary of the clubs.

"Financially, these games can make or break the season and we're not going to get any kind of gate. It's also unlikely that we will be able to finish the game," he said with complete honesty.

But the hard word from the Lancashire League executive was that if there was no play on Saturday then it was on to Monday evening.

In those circumstances, there was little option than, once the rain stopped, to make the best of a bad job.

The reward for the eventual winners will be a place in the final. For the losers, there won't even be a cash consolation from a gate of just £210. That wasn't the only controversy.

A break for bad light, unknown in my experience of watching league cricket at weekends, caused an interruption in the later stages and then brought a "premature" close around 8-20pm.

Reluctant to play, reluctant to stop playing, it was something of a paradox. Yet there was much good to come out of the game - not least the performance of Brown junior who is destined for greater things.

Sent in an hour after the scheduled start, Burnley did little wrong and Todmorden little right.

The bowling and fielding of a highly-competitive Todmorden team was tamed by a superb second-wicket stand of 142 between Brown (92) and professional Dale Benkenstein (86).

You expect the pro to perform but it was Brown who set the pattern with a lovely on-drive for four in Frans Cronje's opening over.

From then on, anything short, or with a suggestion of leg side, got its just desserts. There were class shots all round the wicket as Brown struck nine fours and a six and Benkenstein five sixes and four boundaries.

No wonder dad Peter took special pride in his son's effort. "I'm just sorry he didn't get a century, because that innings deserved it," said the skipper. "I've tried to teach him a few things but you can't give them ability and that's what he has got."

The youngster also showed remarkable maturity in helping Burnley amass 232-6.

Todmorden faced a mighty task, especially with off-spinner David Connolly bowling tightly and Waqas Amin getting a little life out of a tame wicket.

The visitors were no doubt regretting missing Benkenstein at16 but their pro Cronje (85) could also have gone more cheaply if chances had been taken.

It was Cronje who made a mockery of the "bad light" by hitting Amin, bowling too short, for three successive sixes in one over. But, forced by the pressure for quick runs to chase a wide one, he was caught behind.

The dismissal of Cronje could prove decisive when play resumes at 6-30pm. Unless Todmorden have an amateur of the calibre of Brown or Benkenstein's absence from the attack with a back injury has an influence.

Burnley are favourites but Tod skipper David Whitehead promised: "We'll give it a go. If we didn't think we could make it, there wouldn't be any point turning up."

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