Local cricket: Bacup blow it

A sweeping statement may be, but this was a calamity of excessive proportions and one from which the men from Lanehead may find it very difficult to recover.

Even allowing for a truly magnificent bowling and fielding effort from victorious East Lancs, there could be no denying that Bacup messed up big style.

To lose NINE wickets for just 30 runs when your victory target is a meagre 75 from 36 overs, is inexcusable and definitely not the stuff of potential champions.

Just when it needed someone to get a grip, no-one rose to the challenge and East Lancs, down and out at one point, grew stronger the more they detected the visitors' wobble.

Nobody capitalised more than evergreen East Lancs bowler Ian Haworth who again proved the man for the big occasion in taking 4-24 to offer brilliant support to Mr Mean Claude Henderson.

Haworth could hardly contain his delight afterwards and no wonder.

East Lancs didn't look in a position to win this rain-affected clash until the final hour, but how they grabbed the chance when it came along.

"We got the worst of the weather and to be quite honest I was looking for the rain to come and save us -- a win looked unlikely to say the very least" admitted Haworth.

"Bacup's tactics obviously centered around trying to keep wickets in hand but perhaps they didn't push it along early enough and that put increased pressure on the middle and later order batsmen." Unfortunate weather conditions made for a frustrating afternoon and East Lancs seemed to have gathered nowhere near enough runs when they posted 79-6 from their 39 overs -- the victory target eventually revised to 75 from 36 overs due to a third interruption early in the Bacup reply.

Henderson was the pick of the home batsmen, patiently gathering his 25 runs from 91 balls before being involved in a silly run out with Chris Riley. Bacup professional Adam Dale and consistent amateur David Ormerod bowled well to keep things very tight -- East Lancs didn't register a run until the fifth over and were 6-3 at one stage.

Bacup had good reason to feel confident during the tea interval and didn't have much cause for concern even after losing opener Peter Killelea early on.

Peter Thompson and Dale took control with a 35 run partnership for the second wicket before both fell to great catches from East Lancs skipper Phil Mercer, although Dale's stroke selection was questionable in the extreme.

Suddenly the Bacup nerves started to show and again, interesting without being spectacular, suddenly took on a new look all together.

Runs remained hard to come by but wickets fell at an alarming rate from the Bacup perspective and all at once the home side sensed a victory chance. From needing under three an over and nine wickets in hand, Bacup disintegrated.

When the ninth wicket went down in the penultimate over, Bacup were still 12 runs short and it was left to skipper Neil Wilkinson to try and pull off a miracle.

Wilkinson scored four off successive balls midway through Henderson's final over and with three balls remaining Bacup required five to win.

The tension was at fever pitch but Wilkinson made the mistake of racing down the wicket in attack and fell lbw to the home pro. EAST LANCS 79-6

BACUP 70

East Lancs 12 pts

Bacup 5 pts

EAST LANCS

A Clague c Thompson b Dale ... 0

P Bolton b Ormerod ... 4

P Turner c Chapman b Dale ... 2

Henderson run out ... 25

P Mercer b Ormerod ... 12

C Riley b Ormerod ... 13

K Mall not out ... 10

P Kelly not out ... 5

Extras ... 8

Total (6 wkts) ... 79

Bowling: Dale 20-5-46-2; D Ormerod 19-10-31-3

BACUP

P Thompson c Mercer b Haworth ... 16

P Killelea c and b Henderson ... 1

Dale c Mercer b Henderson ... 22

T Lord b Haworth ... 2

J Chapman run out ... 0

A Spencer st Egan b Henderson ... 3

J Cunliffe b Haworth ... 2

M O'Connor run out ... 7

A Taylor st Egan b Haworth ... 1

N Wilkinson lbw Henderson ... 8

D Ormerod not out ... 1

Extras ... 7

Total (all out) ... 70

Bowling: N Iqbal 5-0-11-0; Henderson 17.4-6-30-4; I Haworth 13-1-24-4