THE South triumphed over the North as Darwen Leisure Centre played host to the borough's first junior floodlit cricket competition.

Played at under 13s and under 15s, two teams were selected from cricket clubs in the area to compete in the inaugural event.

The South team was made up of players from Darwen, Edgworth and Feniscowles while Cherry Tree, East Lancs and Blackburn Northern players made up the North team.

Now organisers will use the competition to select two borough teams to take on other town teams during the summer.

Competition rules meant that five runs were deducted every time a player was dismissed. Teams batted in pairs for an allotted number of overs and each player got the chance to bowl.

In the under 13s, Chris Clarke of Darwen was the star of the show hitting an unbeaten 20 with opening partner Ross McNaughton of Edgworth also not out for nine. Ashley Marsden of Feniscowles also looked impressive with his knock of 10 not out as the South team finished on 70 with two wickets down, claimed by William Whalley of East Lancs and Amir Mirza of Cherry Tree.

In reply, the North did not lose a wicket but could only muster up a total of 46 with Jack Kennedy of Cherry Tree top scoring with seven while Mirza and Joe Bolton hit six runs each.

In the under 15s, the South notched a total of 54 with Tom Liversidge of Edgworth knocking 13 while Kevin Brown was also unbeaten on 11. Michael Grant, also of Darwen, made nine but was out once.

Craig Kennedy of Cherry Tree, who was the North's wicket keeper apart from his two over spell.

Adam Chester proved to be the biggest run maker of the night when the Blackburn Northern opener hit 15 runs despite being bowled out once.

But he was not well supported with Khuram Shehzad and Aneel Mohammed hitting five and six runs respectively as the North fell 21 runs short of their target.