Lancashire League Handbook 2016

15 Simon O’Loughlin topped the amateur bowling contribution with 34 wickets closely followed by Liam Jackson’s 32. The Second Eleven championship was again taken down to the last match and by fate the two main contenders met to decide the fate of the title. By the end of May Ramsbottom led the table by 5 points from Burnley with Todmorden in fourth place behind reigning champions Nelson who were third. The table at the end of June gave an indication that it was likely to be a close run thing and 3 teams were tied on 111 points Todmorden, East Lancs and Ramsbottom with Burnley 4 behind. It was still close at the end of July with Todmorden and Ramsbottom tied up on 157 and Burnley just 4 behind on 153. But in August things stretched out a little and Burnley took over top place by 5 points from Todmorden. Both sides won their penultimate games and it was down to Centre Vale for the last game of the season to decide the Champions. Burnley batted first and took advantage with a total of 266 for 6 in their 50 overs with Paul Mortimer making 56 in support to top scorer Gus Whitehead’s 74. In reply Todmorden were 156 all out despite a top score of 74 from Jacob Crossley but ironically they had no answer to Graham Lalor whose 5 for 42 was his last performance as a Burnley player as he joins Todmorden for 2016. Main contributors for Burnley with the bat were Gus Whitehead with 515 runs Matthew Lamb with 371 and Matt Tomlinson with 320. Graham Lalor took 51 wickets and Faiz Razool and Mohammed Furqhan had 34 and 33. This was Burnley’s 9th 2nd eleven championship. The Third Eleven Championship should also have had a showdown finish but the weather intervened as I will explain later. At the end of May Burnley led the table with a perfect 5 wins out of 5 with full bonus points from Ramsbottom who had also won 5 but had 2 less bonus points. Burnley played only one match in June and Church took over at the top of the table with Haslingden now in third. Again in July, Burnley played only one game but were still unbeaten with a perfect record but Haslingden had now taken top position and were still there at the end of August, despite Burnley still being unbeaten and with maximum points.