PHIL BOLTON made his first half-century of the season to keep East Lancs chasing the title dream against Rishton in the Transco Lancashire League yesterday.

Rishton made a handy 175 in the first innings to lay down the gauntlet to the title chasers, who took up the challenge.

Led by 24-year-old Bolton, the man of the match with a total of 59, the home side won the game comfortably in the end, with 13 overs to spare.

But at tea, East Lancs, who lie second in the league, didn't know it was going to be so easy and were even wondering whether they would be able to get their 30 overs played to make it a game.

Rain threatened all afternoon.

"They set us a challenging target," said Bolton.

"So it was good to win so convincingly. It was a good performance."

With Bacup seemingly heading for defeat at Rawtenstall, the East Lancs ground was buzzing at the end of the game as fans and players alike waited for the result from the Worswick Memorial Ground.

East Lancs would have gone top of the league had the result gone their way.

"We knew this was going to be a crucial match to win," said Bolton, who knocked five fours and a six off his 83 balls.

"We knew if we lost and Bacup won it would be season over really.

"It would have been great to end the weekend on top of the league because if you are top of the league at this stage of the season you have to be happy but there's a lot of cricket to be played yet."

The East Lancs bowling had been sound and that was mirrored in their batting.

Sub-professional Dave Callaghan took two wickets for 30 runs and made an unbeaten 37 with the bat. Team-mates Nas Iqbal took two for 54 and Phil Mercer contributed with two for 31.

Rishton's Peter Sleep had made 34, which included four fours and a six, but their best batting performance came from amateur Jonathan Dobson, who made three fours and two sixes on his way to 46.

Things didn't look good for East Lancs after tea when opener Andy Clague went cheaply for four.

But a 90-run partnership for the second wicket from Bolton and Paul Turner put the home side back on track.

And an unbroken partnership of 53 from Callaghan and Phil Mercer finished Rishton off.

As news filtered through that Bacup got the win, Bolton stayed optimistic.

"We just want to keep the pressure on them and hope they slip up. But losing the Worsley Cup will motivate them even more than before."

East Lancs's problem in the run-in will be finding a sub-pro for their Saturday matches.

They are struggling the find a replacement for Brad Young, who has now returned to Australia with a knee injury, for this Saturday's game against Haslingden.

Durham's John Glendenning filled in for the abandoned match against Lowerhouse on Saturday and the South African Johann Louw, who plays in the Central Lancs League with Heywood, is lined up for the game against Enfield on September 8.

Callaghan will play all Sunday games.

"We knew we had a great replacement for Brad in Dave," said Bolton, who has never won the league with East Lancs in five attempts. "But we need to find someone like him for the other games."