Lancashire League Handbook 2016

13 FOSTERS LANCASHIRE CRICKET LEAGUE Our Sponsorship relationship with Heineken, under the Fosters banner as League & Worsley Cup sponsors and Moorhouses Brewery’s 20/20 Sponsorship continued and we are most grateful for both partnerships. Ockert Erasmus at Accrington, Haseeb Azam at Bacup, Usman Tariq at Church, Chris Holt at Burnley, Daryn Smit at Ramsbottom, Brett Pelser at Rawtenstall and Cobus Pienaar at Lowerhouse were the returning professionals from 2014. This left Colne, East Lancs, Enfield, Haslingden, Nelson, Rishton and Todmorden with new professionals in Thomas Kaber, J P de Villiers, Graeme van Buuren, Burton de Wett, Keshav Meharaj, Kelly Smutts and Bilawal Bhatti. Four of the professionals have been re-signed for 2016. The Ron Singleton Colne Trophy between Burnley and Lowerhouse started the season off but only after the original date had been washed out. This season a reserve date had been scheduled and therefore there was no need to share the trophy as in previous seasons. Lowerhouse batted first and made 206 for 9 from their 50 overs with Joe Martin and Cobus Pienaar scoring 40 each. Extras were top contributor to the score on 42 with 17 no balls and 17 wides. Burnley’s reply saw Chris Holt and Vishal Tripathi put 90 on for the first wicket with Chris Holt wiping out the extras with 43 before Daniel Pickup joined Vishal, adding another 62 before Vishal departed for the day’s top score of 66 leaving Pickup (65) and Chris Burton (23) to complete the run chase in the 41st over and earn Burnley their first Colne Trophy win since 2007. The season started the next day and Burnley continued their form from the previous day and an early win at Bacup saw David Brown top scoring on 58 not out. Reigning champions Lowerhouse also made a winning start but had to graft to a 2 wicket win at East Lancs. Elsewhere there were wins for Accrington, Enfield, Nelson, Ramsbottom and Todmorden who had a late substitute in Yasim Murtaza who smashed 111 from 63 balls and a few windows in the Ibex Mill. By the end of May Burnley had won 7 games and led the table with 87 points, a 12-point lead over Ramsbottom with Lowerhouse a further point behind. Four straight wins in June extended the lead over Ramsbottom to 22 points with Rawtenstall, the only team to have beaten Burnley at that point in the season now in third place a further 9 points behind. As July ended the lead was down to 9 points after Ramsbottom were victorious at Acre Bottom with a 113 run win. Lowerhouse were now back in third place but were 26 runs behind Ramsbottom.