PETER Killelea was too nervous to watch the early stages of the Bacup reply.

It was perhaps a wise move as the game was dead and buried when the Killelea came to the wicket with his side on 55 for five.

The fact that Ramsbottom had to sweat until the final over before celebrating their first Worsley Cup win in 39 years was down to his valiant 51.

On a wicket which strongly favoured the bowlers, it was a gutsy effort which earned him the Lancashire Evening Telegraph man of the match award.

And that kind of special performance was needed to edge Ramsbottom's Steve Dearden out of the running.

The visitors had also suffered a disastrous start, losing Ian Bell to the first ball of the game and skipper Jack Simpson for a duck, sweeping at Bacup pro Roger Harper.

New Zealand Test star Chris Harris and Dearden steadied the ship before the Ramsbottom professional was adjudged leg before to a Harper delivery which kept low.

Wickets began to fall with regularity and the feeling of a bumper crowd, which netted a gate of £2,510, was that Ramsbottom would struggle to post a worthy target.

But Dearden hung around for 46 before, ironically, falling to a bat-pad catch by Killelea at short leg off Harper.

The Bacup pro was his customary menacing best, returning figures of five for 68.

But valuable late runs were added by the highly-promising Chris Hall and the 161 target suddenly looked testing.

Dearden steamed in, extracting pace and lift from the track.

Andrew Spencer was the first to perish by taking the fight to the Ramsbottom all-rounder.

His mis-timed pull was snaffled by Garfield Moreton at mid-off.

The destiny of the cup final was then in the hands of West Indian stalwart Roger Harper.

Having smashed Allan Donald to all parts of Blackburn Road last weekend, he was clearly confident with strokeplay.

Another hook though, again slightly mis-timed was skewed in the general vicinity of Harris at deep square leg.

To save four runs would have been the priority for mere mortals. Harris, though, dived forward to pouch a magnificent catch.

Taylor was next to fall to Dearden, flicking at a wide lifting ball and edging to wicketkeeper Jack Simpson.

Harris switched ends and began to extract more from the wicket as the Bacup middle order crumbled and the tail was exposed.

Killelea, who was dropped for the 1993 final against Rawtenstall, had weighed anchor, and was scoring enough runs to keep his side in with a remote shout.

"I kept telling the other batsmen to stay there because I thought I was going to win it.

"David Ormerod batted well against Donald and I was still confident when we were down to our last wicket," said Killelea.

Dearden returned to the attack and Harris, who also took five wickets, was difficult to force away for runs.

Killelea was eventually run out in the final over, attempting to retain the strike, with Bacup 12 runs short of their target.

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