11:42am Monday 14th September 2009
PAUL Houldsworth turned in a marvellous display to bowl Great Harwood into second place in the Ribblesdale League as they held off the Read challenge to finish runners up.
Houldsworth claimed 5-26 - but Harwood had to work to see off the threat of wooden spoonists Blackburn Northern.
Batting first, Northern lost Ammer Mirza to skipper Russ Whalley and when Mini Bhada was trapped leg before by Raouf Akbar for a 20-ball duck, Northern were 11-2.
Naeem Ashraf made just two with the pace of Akbar leading to three wickets before Houldsworth got into the groove and claimed his five-for to skittle Northern, skippered by Siraj Bhada in place of Rudra Singh, for 87.
The result wasn’t a formality for Harwood and they lost wickets on their way to 90-7. Allan Armer made 39 and Whalley 16 to steer their side to the win that guaranteed second place irrespective of Read’s result at Ribblesdale Wanderers.
As it was, they were beaten after being bowled out for 105 at Church Meadow but they made Wanderers work and Gary Hunt’s men just squeezed home by two wickets with Read skipper and professional Jon Harvey claiming five wickets in vain.
Baxenden finished their season on a low as they were crushed at Settle. The champions were rolled over for 68 with John Tarbox claiming seven wickets before Settle got home.
Kiwi Darren Broom claimed five wickets and Andreas Sudnik four as Cherry Tree rounded off their season on a high with a win at Whalley.
Broom returned figures of 5-26 and the impressive Sudnik 4-16 from 9.5 overs as Whalley were all out for just 91. They wouldn’t have made anywhere near that had it not been for 33 extras.
Jon Baldwin’s men then seemed to be coasting but a flurry of wickets put them in danger until Stephen Elwood smashed three sixes and two fours in a hard-hitting 32 from just 20 balls.
Earby were beaten by Oswaldtwistle despite 59 from Ali Azmat, while Edenfield enjoyed a run-fest as they hit the Barnoldswick bowling for 326 at Gincroft Lane.
Adam Barnes hit 80 and Leighton Paul 58, while Asim Bhatti contributed an unbeaten 52 out of that mammoth total, which was 183 too many for Barlick.
Clitheroe rounded off a disappointing campaign with a four-wicket win over Padiham.
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