DARWEN Under 15s progress in the English Schools Cricket Association Taverner's Colts Trophy was halted on Sunday as the Lancashire champions side came up against their outstanding Nottinghamshire county counterparts.

Radcliffe, who included five county players, were put in to bat by captain, Nathan Carr, and their openers handled everything the Darwen bowlers could throw at them.

Brown and Mason accumulated a steady flow of runs before Brown fell to Bonner for 46 with Radcliffe's total on 96.

Mason stayed a little longer watching Davies fall to Nathan Carr and Johnson to Burke before he fell for 49 to a fine catch from Scott Carr of his brother Nathan's bowling.

The Radcliffe innings finished on a challenging 137 from the allotted 20 overs.

In reply, Darwen openers Clarke and Anwar added 11 before Anwar was bowled by James for 10. Clarke and Scott Carr added a further 11 before Clarke was dismissed for six in the eighth.

The Carr brothers fought gallantly to keep Darwen in the game and added 46 from just seven overs before Scott was dismissed by Torr for 23. Nathan added a further 19 with Brown and went on to score an undefeated 35 as the Darwen innings eventually fell 42 runs short of the target.

Manager Gary Jackson was disappointed with the result but impressed by the Notts side. "The Darwen lads did really well to get this far in the competition, they leave as Lancashire Champions and can hold their heads up high after being beaten by an excellent Notts team in Radcliffe. I wish them well in their future rounds they deserve to go all the way."

Darwen booked their place in the national finals by beating the highly-fancied Farnworth Social Circle in a thrilling Lancashire final.

Darwen were put into bat and struggled initially as Farnworth's Lancashire bowlers had them on the back foot with bright prospect Kamran Anwar dismissed for a duck.

But patient batting from Jordan Clarke and Scott Carr ensured that no further damage was done as they took the score to 34 at the half-way point of the innings. They went on to share a match-winning partnership of 81 before Clarke was clean bowled for an excellent 40 with the score on 88. Carr soon followed for an equally important 32 as he was caught taking one chance too many.

Niall Burke and Nathan Carr kept the runs coming as they took the final score to 99 from the allocated twenty overs.

Farnworth's opening batsmen Rushmore and Perry scored steadily in reply as they took the score to 45 without loss from the first 10 overs. But the introduction of Greg Bonner's spin bowling changed the course of the game as in only his second over he claimed the wicket of Perry (18) who was caught on the boundary by a stunning catch by Scott Carr.

In the very next over, the impressive Rushmore was stumped by Clarke off Anwar's bowling for a solid 29. Farnworth had now lost both openers with the score on 53.

Bonner claimed a second victim having Lees stumped for four and with the score on 62 and with five overs to go the game could have gone either way.

The reintroduction of Nathan Carr saw him hit for 10 runs before he too joined in the action as the under 13s Sam Chatburn-Jones clung to sharp catch to dismiss Taylor for 14 off his bowling.

Niall Burke then had Collins snapped up by Rajeepan for two in his penultimate over leaving Farnworth needing 19 to win from just two overs with five wickets in hand.

In Nathan Carr's final over, Farnworth really threw the bat looking for runs but he kept a tight line under the severest pressure and he clean bowled Raynor for 10 and had Wild caught by Anwar for 0. Yet still Farnworth had managed to score seven leaving 12 required from the final over.

The task fell to Niall Burke and his first three balls saw only two runs scored before he inadvertently lost his line giving three wides.

He recovered his composure to finish the over and the match in immaculate style as Farnworth fell three runs short of Darwen's total.