COLNE won a Worsley Cup final with more twists to the plot than a Shakespeare play thanks to their own King Leah.

Andy, the 33-year-old batsman was named man of the match for a scintillating unbeaten 53 that helped post a target which proved marginally too tough for East Lancs in a last ball thriller.

Leah has been a member at the Horsfield since he was nine years old, six years after Colne last won a trophy back in 1969.

But he will not be around to see Gary Laycock's young and battling side attempt to defend their silverware as Leah has booked a round the world trip starting in October.

And his pockets will be full of spending money after he enjoyed a £230 collection on top of the £50 Lancashire Evening Telegraph prize for his achievement.

He said: "I might put £30 behind the bar and keep the rest!

"This is the pinnacle of my career, without a doubt. But, after I got a thin nick on my second ball from Paul Kelly which went for four, I thought I should just go for it. "It's easy batting with Joe as he takes the pressure off you. Gary Hunt told me the ball was nipping about off the seam so I tried to get to the pitch of the ball and to attack the bowling.

"As long as Joe was there I knew we were going to get a decent score." The partnership between Leah and Scuderi, broken when the professional top edged to short third man for 56, provided vital impetus after a studious start from Hunt and Dave Swarbrick laid the foundations.

East Lancs skipper Phil Mercer, who bowled 10 wides in his opening spell of five overs, gambled in bowling out professional Claude Henderson in an attempt to break that partnership.

But, although the South African slow left armer conceded a miserly 13 runs from his 10 overs, Scuderi and Leah were still at the crease and starting to cut loose.

Leah rode his luck as catches went down in the outfield but it was the punchy acceleration necessary to post a challenging total of 191 on a good cricket wicket with something in it for both bowlers and batsmen. Colne's bowling was accurate from the off. Openers Nick Moulding and Scuderi pegged Andy Clague and Phil Bolton back as East Lancs also built a solid base.

Those good habits were continued by first change Kevin Cullen who conceded just 18 from is allotted overs.

And, with Glyn Sedman taking 2-24 from his 10 overs, suddenly East Lancs found themselves behind the asking rate. All the time, Clague, who won the man of the match award in last year's final between the same two sides, was steadily picking up the ones and two.

Then Henderson perished to a loose shot to mid-wicket off Sedman and wickets continued to fall with regularity.

Fireworks were needed but Clague eventually perished to a good catch at deep mid-wicket by Nigel Rimmer and the tail was left a tall order.

But first Jan Van Boeckel found the boundary and then Nas Iqbal hit a six and four off Scuderi to breath new hope into the East Lancs cause.

He was caught behind but Chris Riley also stepped up to hit a towering six in the final over from Scuderi.

With two balls remaining, Scuderi having bowled a wide, six runs were required.

The Aussie speared a yorker into the feet of Riley to bring veteran Ian Haworth to the crease for the final ball needing six runs for victory. A sense of destiny filled the ground but the yorker again proved effective and the 46-year-old could only squeeze a single.

Laycock admitted: "I was quite confident they weren't going to hit Joe for six off the last ball.

"Joe has played a major part. When we signed him, we wanted him to bring us success and he has done that. I cannot say enough about him.

"We were down at the bottom of the league for five years but now we have started to turn into a good side.

"But people have supported us through the bad times and it is a pleasure to be involved with this team. They never know when to lie down." Scuderi was another who did not know when to lie down today. For, instead of a morning sleeping off last night's excesses, the Italian passport holder was on the 6am train to London to start a two-week tour of Britain with Italy!

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