LOWERHOUSE chairman Stan Heaton insists last season’s champions remain well placed for a runners up berth, but admits: ‘Burnley will be champs’.

The Lancashire League holders lock horns with the champions elect at Liverpool Road on Sunday week and by then Burnley could have one hand on the trophy Lowerhouse have claimed for their own in 2014, 2012 and 2011.

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“I think Burnley are a fabulous side, they will make worthy champions,” said Heaton.

“They have played great cricket and have a terrific blend in their side. Good luck to them because they’ve really got it right this season.”

Lowerhouse dominated the league last term, winning 22 of their 26 league fixtures to take the title in tremendous fashion.

However, they have found runs harder to come by this season with two of the main contributors with the bat in the championship team now playing elsewhere in the county.

Top performer with the bat was Ben Heap with 542 runs, while Joe Hawke, who banked 473 runs and claimed 34 wickets, has also moved on.

Jonathan Finch, who scored nearly 400 runs, has been unavailable for most of the season owing to his coaching commitments to England’s women cricket squad, while Hawke and Heap joined Great Harwood and Padiham as professionals.

“That was a big hit, to lose those three guys because they were part of our mainstay batting and it left us with a big hole to fill,” said chairman Heaton.

“However, we’ve adapted and to be third in the table, and in a with a real shout of second spot is a terrific effort.”

Lowerhouse will be looking for a big points haul in this weekend’s double header against strugglers Nelson and Colne.

“I think we can take second place from Ramsbottom but we need to keep going full tilt in our last half a dozen games.

“Don’t forget we reached the semi-final of the Worsley Cup and the Twenty20 Competition, so this season has proved far from a disaster.

“We’ve just not been able to finish teams off at the end of a game and that has proved our Achilles heel.”

A fresh generation of talent has emerged this term to complement a senior side that has enjoyed so much success over the last five years.

“I don’t think it is a re-building job, we’ve some terrific talent coming through.

“We’ve got youngsters like Joe and Paddy Martin who have emerged into the first eleven this season and we’ve fourteen junior sides operating at the club, something that we are very proud of.

“I just think that in the past it has been harder for the kids to get an opportunity because the senior lads had performed so well, winning the titles.

“The average age of the second eleven players this season is fifteen and a half, so in terms of player development I couldn’t be happier.”