MARK Friend may have been the man who led Darwen to Lancashire Knockout glory but the Towers skipper was quick to praise Neil Cordingley for his role in the success.

Skipper Friend finished unbeaten on 43 to claim the man of the match honours in a two-wicket win over Clifton at Ormskirk on Sunday but the captain felt Cordingley, who joined him as 10th man in with 57 runs still needed, should take plenty of plaudits.

The pair combined for a match-winning ninth wicket and Cordingley finished on 26 not out having earlier taken 2-26 with the balls.

“Credit where it is due to Neil,” said Friend. “He is the oldest guy in our team at 42 but he has experience of seeing games home and he is no stranger to it.

“He has played at the top of the order before and he came in and batted really well.

“We just wanted to keep ticking along at two or three an over because we knew we had plenty of time.”

The winning runs came in the 41st over although Friend said the first he knew of the ball reaching the boundary was when he was mobbed be teammates.

“It was jubilation at the end, before I knew we had hit a four to win it the whole team was on the pitch,” he said.

“We had a really good following there and I was disappointed to be in the middle when the winning runs were hit, running onto the pitch looked more fun!”

Earlier, Darwen had Clifton in trouble at 87-7 but James Evans (37) and Steve Cheetham (24) helped recover the situation as they posted 146-9 from 45 overs, with John Cordingley taking 3-23 from nine overs for Darwen.

The Towers fell from 30-0 to 34-3 and lost wickets at regular intervals but Friend and Neil Cordingley were able to see them over the line.

“It was a great team performance and the Knockout is the creme de la creme of trophies for us,” added the skipper.

“I think if you could only win one trophy you would want that one as it is the countywide competition.

“We had the belief going into it and we knew we had the team to win.

“We bowled really well and gave nothing away.

“We knew they were a strong side but we managed to get the pro and captain (Gareth Cross) out first ball and that gave us a really good start.

“To keep them under 150 was our target because we knew we had a chance of chasing that down as it was a good pitch to bat on.”

The Knockout success, coming at the third time of asking for Darwen after two losing final appearances, capped a good weekend for the Towers who became the first team in the Lancashire League to beat Walsden this season on Saturday.

They are assured of a fourth place league finish ahead of Sunday’s finale at home to Rishton.

“That was a really good win for us and is the second time we have beaten them this season,” added Friend.

“We didn’t want to lose and see them win the title.

“We can only finish fourth but we want to try and finish with a win and take the momentum into next season.”