ANDY McNicholas has twice tasted league heartache with Great Harwood. And the Padiham skipper is hoping to leave them disappointed again by lifting the Jennings Ribblesdale League title tomorrow.

McNicholas was captain of Harwood when they were pipped to the championship on a couple of occasions.

And if his new side beat Harwood this afternoon, and then overcome Barnoldswick at Victory Park tomorrow, Padiham will be a good bet to retain the league crown.

Harwood's own hopes would be ended by a Padiham win today, which would leave Ribblesdale Wanderers - two points adrift before today's fixtures - as Padiham's only championship rivals if they won their own game against Cherry Tree this afternoon.

"Great Harwood were runners-up for two years running and I know what it means to them," admitted McNicholas, who will still take nothing for granted even if Padiham win today.

"Teams like Barnoldswick and Whalley are more than capable of beating the best sides. One of the three games we lost recently was against Barnoldswick and they have a good record against us," he added.

"It might be far from over. Saturday is just the first of two tough legs, although in theory we could have won it by tonight.

"I saw Terry Braithwaite's comments that there could be a few more twists and turns and he could be right. I think Cherry Tree will have a big say. But if we win our two games, we will be pretty well tied on."

McNicholas is expecting a few anxious phone calls around the grounds over the weekend and with the weather set fair, the race for the championship could go to the last ball. "We did win it last year when the games were rained off and it was a bit of an anti-climax. It would be nice to hit the winning runs or take the last wicket and do it on the field," said McNicholas, whose side has come good when it matters after surrendering the lead to Wanderers a couple of weeks ago.

"We had a bit of a hiccup when we lost three on the trot, but it's come together for us and results have gone our way," he added.

However, Padiham will be without bowlers Kasim Ali and Umar Saddique tomorrow as they will be representing the league in the North-West Colts Under-18 final against the Cheshire County League at Northern CC, Crosby.

"It's unfortunate timing," McNicholas admitted.

"They will be missed, although fortunately we don't rely on one or two bowlers and we've got a few options.

"They would like to play but they can't and that's a shame because if we were to win they will miss out on a special day."

Barnoldswick also lose John Pickup, while Ribblesdale Wanderers will be without David Gardner-Chan and Great Harwood also have Richard Lamb and Stuart Maher on final duty.

Tomorrow's fixtures: Barnoldswick v Padiham, Blackburn N v Ribblesdale Wanderers, Cherry Tree v Great Harwood, Clitheroe v Edenfield, Earby v Settle, Oswaldtwistle v Baxenden, Whalley v Read.

League under-18 side: D Walton (capt), A Norse (Blackburn Northern), R Lamb, S Maher (Great Harwood), M Stevens (Oswaldtwistle I), D Gardner-Chan, A Ainsworth (Ribblesdale W), J Pickup (Barnoldswick), K Ali, W Ali, U Saddique (Padiham). 12th man: M Stafford (Ribblesdale W).

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.