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The Jennings Ribblesdale League suffered a power failure in their middle-order batting to go down by eight runs in their M.E.N. inter-league final against the Vimto Bolton Association at Edenfield, writes Peter White.

Chasing a revised target of 155 for victory, after rain had caused the loss of two overs at the start of their reply, the Ribblesdale League could hardly have had a better start.

Terry Little (23) and Ian Scothern (31) shared an opening partnership of 64 to put them bang on course for victory.

But then the introduction of Andy Cumberbatch (3-24) and Terry Southworth (3-13) caused havoc among the Ribblesdale batting and prompted a collapse.

Edenfield's John Kershaw (23) gave the home side hope of making their target but, when he was given out lbw, the odds swung heavily in favour of the Bolton Association.

Eventually, the local team were left high and dry eight runs short at the end of their 46 overs. Earlier, the Ribblesdale League had given a good account of themselves with the ball and in the field.

Opening bowler Shaun Rashid, from Padiham, turned in an outstanding spell of 3-13 from nine overs and the Bolton side struggled to get to grips with Michael Scothern, who picked up 1-17 from a similar spell.

The side also fielded excellently to keep the Bolton score within range at 161-8 from their 48 overs.

It looked achievable, even when those two overs were knocked off and the target revised.

But they failed to cash in on that excellent start.

Southworth, who hit an unbeaten 21 to go with his wickets for the Bolton side, was named as man of the match.

``It is a very proud day for us,'' said Association president Tom Boardman. ``We are the oldest cricket league in Lancashire yet until today, we had never won this competition. In fact we had only ever reached the final once before.''