Lancashire League Handbook 2017

15 A finish to the season looked to be developing and Ramsbottom lost their unbeaten record in a rain affected match at Accrington on run rate. Burnley were now 6 points behind but crucially had a game in hand due to their involvement in the Lancs Knockout where they had reached the semifinal. Nelson had overtaken Lowerhouse into third place but would be unable to make an impact on the top 2 due to the points difference of 41. The game in hand at Haslingden was abandoned without play and the 3 points reduced the gap to just 3 points. On the penultimate Sunday Ramsbottom took all 12 points, bowling Rishton out for 72 and winning by 9 wickets. Burnley amassed 298 for 2 in just 38 overs against Bacup but were unable to take the 2 bonus points as Bacup ended on 146 for 7. One game to go and the lead was now 5 points. The last round of games saw Burnley travel to Todmorden and Ramsbottom to Nelson. The Championship looked to be heading to Acre Bottom when Nelson were 78 all out with Daryn Smit taking 6 for 10 from 9.5 overs. However, Nelson hadn’t got to third in the table without battling qualities and wickets started to fall. Suddenly Ramsbottom were 44 for 5 with professional Daryn Smit back in the pavilion, bowled for none. Things got worse as the experienced Jon Fielding and Rob Read fell to LBW’s and the score was 54 for 8. Dale Gabriel had survived and Tom Booth joined him for a crucial 25 run partnership which tied the scores before Booth was stumped. Josh Dentith strode to the wicket and an inside edge to the boundary secured the win for Ramsbottom but a tie and the bonus points would have proved sufficient to secure the championship. As expected Burnley had kept up the pressure buy bowling Todmorden out for 12. And then Chris Holt (73 no) and Jonathan Clare (34 no) put together a century stand to secure a 9 wicket win and 12 points. For Ramsbottom, Professional Daryn Smit scored 774 runs (2 hundreds & 7 - 50’s) and a top score of 100 not out. He also took 69 wickets with a best of 7 for 15, and also held 16 catches. Top amateur performer with the bat was Tom Parton with 483 runs, and a top score of 81. Dale Gabriel was next with 239 and them Callum Kay with 227. Jon Fielding took 46 wickets and Simon Read 31 in support of Daryn Smit with the ball. Ramsbottom had 9 no results, an unwanted record number for games lost to the weather by League Champions and this overtakes the 7 games lost to the weather by Haslingden in 1987 when they won the Championship. During the 2016 season both Haslingden and East Lancs lost 10 games each