DELIGHTED Padiham skipper Anthony Hall says Great Harwood must have been totally demoralised after his professional teed off to smash a Ramsbottom Cup record score.

Arbories paid man Kashif Siddique was the real star of the show for Hall’s heroes as he clattered a quite sensational 185 as Padiham racked up a record 382-5 in their first round clash with Harwood.

That is believed to be the highest score in the history of the competition – and Hall joked: “It was a pretty relaxed feeling at tea time knowing that Harwood would really have to go some to get close.”

After winning the toss, Hall had no doubt about batting first and Siddique went straight on the attack as he took on the shattered Harwood bowlers.

“It is very important in the cup to make use of all the bowlers,” added Hall. “Because of the limitations on overs you get lads bowling who may not send another over down all season and you have to try to take advantage of them.

“But Kashif was in the mood and went after the lot of them and Stuart Maher, who is a regular bowler and has a good record against Kashif, suffered.

“He was dropped when on 10 or 15 and Harwood really were made to pay for that.

“It was awesome to watch and it is great to see when he gets going into that mood, although I am not sure if the bowlers think that.

“He hit 19 fours and 11 sixes and while he has made bigger scores it was tremendous.

“And he got out with 10 overs to go so it could have been another hundred or so.”

Harwood’s talismanic amateur Russell Whalley is out with a broken leg at the moment and Hall added: “Russ was there watching on his crutches and obviously if he was playing we would be looking to get him out because Russ would be the sort of danger when you are defending a big target.

“And the professional Raouf Akbar batted really well for them but I got the feeling it was a matter of time before we won. It is a massive ask to get close to such a big score.”

The win sets up a second round derby with Read at the Arbories next month and Hall is determined to see his men put up a better show than in recent meeting.

“We probably owe them one,” he said. “We have not done ourselves any justice in the last couple of games with them and we want to put that right.”

But before that cup tie there are important league games for Padiham, who have not started as well as they hoped with two losses in their first four games.

“We are at Salesbury on Saturday and I am looking forward to that because I haven’t played there for years,” said Hall.

“But we want to start picking up some wins now to complement the cup.”