CHAMPIONS Darwen began the defence of their title with a draw at the home of 1998 Champions Netherfield.

Although showing five changes from last year's side, Darwen were on top reducing Netherfield to 128-8 with home professional Vaughan hitting 46 and Darwen's new paid man Keith Semple taking four wickets, but they were thwarted by an unbeaten stand of 34 as they were set a total of 163 to win. Darwen's reply began disastrously as three wickets fell for only 10 runs including that of Semple and despite some good mid-order resistance, Darwen never got themselves into a position where they could confidently go for victory and eventually had to settle for a draw.