BRILLIANT Burnley continued their seemingly unstoppable march towards the Lancashire League title with a stunning 157-run victory over Church at Turf Moor.

Vishal Tripathi’s magnificent 135 at the top of the order set the tone for the afternoon for the league leaders who closed on a mammoth 280-7 off their 50 overs.

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Tripathi was in fine nick and with able support coming from David Brown (64) and Jonny Clare (32) the task facing the visitors was a huge one at the innings break.

Church has struck early with Levi Wolfenden removing professional Chris Holt for just two when he was caught by Sam Tucker.

But that brought Brown to the crease and he and Tripathi shared a stand of 152 for the second wicket to take the game away from the visitors before Brown fell to Usman Tariq.

Kamran Basharat accounted for Clare and then also removed Chris Burton and Michael Kelly as Church somewhat pegged the home side back.

But the visitors were never really in the hunt when they took to the crease as they lost wickets at vital intervals on their way to 123 all out inside 27 overs.

Cole Hayman took 3-15 for the home side while Sam Holt top scored for the visitors with 20.

Ramsbottom are emerging as perhaps the strongest challengers to Burnley after they saw off in-form Enfield at Acre Bottom.

The home side batted first and made 192 which proved to be more than enough as they bowled out the visitors for 105 to remain in second spot.

Defending champions Lowerhouse earned an away win at Accrington to keep themselves in with an outside shot at the title.

The visitors successfully chased down Accrington’s 168-4 to win by four wickets.

Thomas Kaber inspired Colne to a surprise win over Rawtenstall at the Worswick Memorial Ground.

The home side had reached the Twenty20 final on Friday night but were no match for Kaber as he took 5-18 to help bowl the hosts out for exactly 100.

Joe McCluskie top scored for Rawtenstall with 21 while there was three wickets for John Lambert.

Rawtenstall lost CJ Cook-Martin early and although McCluskie and Sam Kershaw took the score to 37 without furthre damage the home side then lost six wickets for 10 runs in the middle order to slump to 47-7.

The tail wagged somewhat to get the home side up to three figures but it was never likely to be enough.

Colne had few troubles chasing down their target with Tom Bradshaw hitting a quickfire 36 to see them over the line with nearly 20 overs to spare and complete a seven wicket win.

Keith Roscoe, Imran Abid and Rizwan Shafiq took the wickets for the home side.

Rishton hauled themselves off the foot of the table with an away success at Nelson.

The visitors were dismissed for 139 batting first but then skittled out their hosts for just 72 to complete a fine win.

Bacup are now propping up the table after they slipped to defeat away at East Lancs, who gave themselves some breathing space away from the bottom two.

Bacup were bowled out for 156 and a well-timed run chase from the home side saw them reach their target for the loss of six wickets.

In the day’s other game Haslingden beat Todmorden by five runs.

Meanwhile, the Lancashire League has announced its Twenty20 side for the representative tournament to be held at Great Harwood on Friday.

The holders face the Palace Shield in the first semi-final and then the winners of the Ribblesdale League versus Northern League clash in the final.

The side in full is: Ockert Erasmus (Accrington), Sam Tillotson (Colne), Graeme Sneddon (Accrington), Stuart Crabtree (Accrington), Andy Hakin (Colne), Levi Wolfenden (Church), Ali Sartaj (Church), Harrison Phelan (Nelson), Russell Bradley (Nelson), Toxy Hussain (Nelson), Matt Walker (Lowerhouse). Reserves: Dominic Stuart (Lowerhouse), Jamie Woodall (Lowerhouse)