GOLBORNE were thankful to the weather as Adlington came close to achieving the shock result of the day. The Vimto leaders were in trouble from the start, collapsing to 62-6 before a 72-run partnership between Graham Marston and Gary Woodward helped them to 136.

Marston was unbeaten on 59 and Woodward 29. But Adlington pro Matthew Taylor took the major honours with 6-71.

Adlington then looked well on the way to a win, reaching 42-1 after 12 overs, before the rain drove them off the pitch.

Eventually the two sides went back, leaving Adlington only 14 overs to go for a win. And they made a brave attempt, finishing on 107-8 after 27 overs, Mark Halliwell 33 and Yousef Shariff 28.

Elton produced a solid performance for a 52-run win over Astley & Tyldesley.

Steve Lomas hit 75 and Darron Foy 53 in Elton's 179-5 while Gareth Williams led a strong bowling attack with 6-53 while Foy added 4-53 as A&T were dismissed for 127.

Atherton must have been reasonably confident after totalling 191-6 at Daisy Hill, Philip West hitting 75 and Brian Cole 62.

But the weather had the final say and Daisy Hill, who were 0-2 at one stage, recovered to 97-4, pro David Hamilton contributing 53.

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