LEAGUE titles are not given out, they have to be earned no matter what the sport and when Graham Lloyd calms the excitement about Accrington’s march towards the Foster’s Lancashire League crown by insisting there will be plenty of twists and turns, he is worth listening to.
With a handsome lead and their challengers doing their best to trip each other up, Accrington are certainly in the box seat.
But cricket is a funny game – although the leaders certainly wouldn’t have seen the funny side if they had lost to Bacup on Saturday.
Bacup have not won a home league match since they beat Colne on July 1 last year – and a more assured batting display would easily have seen them upset the leaders.
The win over Colne was Bacup’s only success on their own Lanehead turf last term and after a strange 50 overs when they managed to post a below par 182-9 not many people would have given them chance of breaking their seasonal home duck.
But they bowled well and Accrington had to dig of oh so deep to get over the line with one wicket in hand.
There was drama right to the end as last man David Ormerod was dropped first ball by Aubrey Swanepoel off Joe Sipocz – who claimed five wickets – with seven runs needed.
And they took full advantage of that slip to take the win.
Aijaz Shah made 50 for Accrington, while Ashar Zaidi and Matt Wilson both made 19 and Simon Hanson’s 16 not out down the order was invaluable.
Adam Highley had made a fine 51 for Bacup, while skipper Joe McCluskie;s 47 gave the innings much needed momentum, while Swanepoel’s odd innings saw a straight driven four, a reverse sweep to the boundary and a single in his first three balls.
He played one ball of the next over back before a scintillating square cut crossed the roped but the next delivery saw a massive swing off Zaidi and Graham Lloyd held an easy catch.
Bacup needed much more from their pro and had it not been for 24 from Matt Thompson they wouldn’t have got up to 182.
Jack Taylor (69) and Brenton Parchment (63) got among the runs as Haslingden sent Lowerhouse crashing to a second successive loss after piling up the runs at the Neville Gee (Recruitment) Ground.
Graham Knowles also made a rapid 37 as Haslingden posted 235-5 but for a while it looked as though the reigning champions would claim another memorable victory.
Cheered on by a bumper crowd on Ladies Day, Ben Heap (47) and Jonny Whitehead (65) put on 106 for the first wicket.
Joe Martin made 23 and Chris Bleazard hit an unbeaten 35 but the House were five runs short when they were bowled out with two balls left with Jordan Shannon claiming five wickets.
In-form Enfield beat Burnley thanks to an excellent chase at Turf Moor.
David Brown made 56 and his brother Michael 29 as Burnley posted 224-8 from their 50 overs but Brad Moses was the main man for Enfield.
The South African, who had earlier claimed three wickets, made a fine 89 not out and Asif Fazal hit 50, while Tiarnan Hamill (30) and David Bracewell’s 15 not out saw Enfield over the line with two balls to spare.
Rawtenstall professional Brett Pelser made his third century of the month as he led his men to a win at Colne.
The classy South African hit 119 and Sam Kershaw made 53 as Rawtenstall piled up 253-6 at The Horsfield.
Colne always knew they had a battle on to chase such a target down but professional Shadley van Schalkwyk gave it his best and made an impressive 96 before his century hopes were shattered when he became one of Imran Abid’s five wickets.
Alex White hit 22 and Gary Hunt 21 in the chase but Colne needed someone else to go on and in the end they were bowled out for 223.
Mini Bhada made 56 but despite his efforts East Lancashire were restricted to 137-9 in their game with Ramsbottom at Alexandra Meadows.
Ramsbottom got home inside 27 overs with professional Pieter Malan making an unbeaten 87.
Ryan Canning passed 500 league runs for the season with 62 but he couldn’t help Nelson to victory as Church made it six wins on the spin.
Canning helped Nelson post 167-9 with Andrew Bentley claiming four more wickets but that total didn’t seem enough and with Lloyd Aspin leading the way with 62 Church eased home with 12 overs to spare.
Daniel Salpietro made 105 but Rishton were beaten easily at Todmorden after home pro Geeth Alwis led the reply with 64.
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