NEWLYWEDS celebrated their reception with hundreds of uninvited sports fans.

Emma Riley and Simon Bibby had planned a small, intimate ceremony with 47 guests and an evening party for 120 people.

However, the couple experienced a late change of plan when they shared their evening venue with 1,000 fans at Enfield Cricket Club, in Church.

The Dill Hall Lane clubhouse was packed for the Lancashire League 20Twenty semi-final between Enfield and Burnley club Lowerhouse.

But rather than hampering their party, Friday’s matchday spirit caught the mood of the bridal party and even saw the bride and groom invited on to the pitch to be cheered by fans.

The couple, who work in customer services for Blackburn company MDA, said they had a brilliant time mixing with cricket fans.

Emma, 22, said that, although their party was very different to the small event they had planned, it ‘couldn’t have been better’.

She said: “They hadn’t expected to get into the semi-finals and hadn’t mentioned it. So we’d no idea that it might affect the reception.

“We were first told about it on the Monday, when they said there might be as many as an extra 100 people at the club, which we felt would be okay.

“When we realised how many people were actually there on the day, it was a bit worrying, but it all went really well.

“We had our own room but there was nothing to stop us invading their party. It ended up being lots of fun and couldn’t have been more perfect.”

Simon, 28, and Emma, who live in Huncoat with daughter Allisa, two, tied the knot at Accrington Register Office before a small get-together with immediate family at Church’s Monte Cristo restaurant.

In the evening, they arrived at the cricket club in glorious weather to find the club gearing up for the semi-final of the Moorhouses competition, which saw Lowerhouse proceed into the final with Ramsbottom this Friday.

Enfield Cricket Club chairman Geoff Dixon said: “It was hard putting on the semi-final and a wedding at the same time but it just all worked out really well.

“I would say thanks to some good organisation we did a proper job and everybody had a fantastic time.”