ENFIELD suffered the drawn-out disappointment of defeat in the Worsley Cup - but did not go down without a fight.
Todmorden finally became the first side through to the quarter-finals when they struck the winning runs with just four balls to spare in the third instalment of the game at Dill Hall Lane on Tuesday night.
Protecting a total of 134 made in testing conditions on Sunday afternoon, Enfield almost defied the odds when they returned for a final attempt to finish the rain-hit tie.
Todmorden required just another 36 runs with six wickets in hand to secure victory but with skipper David Bracewell trying every trick in the book they were made to struggle.
The key wicket of professional Gyan Pandey, who had steered his side into a position of strength on Monday night, went at 110-5 to Neil Holmes after Pandey had made 38 off 64 balls with five fours.
Holmes bowled a remarkable second half of his spell as he took two wickets at a cost of just three runs from his final six overs.
Professional Alviro Petersen was just as miserly as his 10 overs, split over three spells, went for just 14 runs.
Robert Green had also bowled well on Monday evening but with him out of the attack, Bracewell turned to brother Adam to make up the overs.
Adam, whose place behind the stumps was taken by the skipper, responded with the wicket of Brian Heywood, whose hamstring injury forced him to employ a runner.
And with Todmorden scoring just three runs between the 42nd and 47th overs, the visitors started to run out of time and wickets.
However, four byes helped their cause and then as they crawled into the final over with the scores level, Moh Bux ended the tension by hitting Bracewell's second ball for six to secure victory.
"It goes back to from the position we were in we were looking to get 180, so we were disappointed to only get 134," said David Bracewell.
"If Adam and the pro had stayed together for another 10 overs we would have got the score we wanted.
"But then to take them to the last over with just two wickets left showed a great effort. And as it turned out, with another five runs we might have nicked it."
After dodging the showers to be the only game to survive the weather on Sunday, Enfield had got themselves to a useful looking 84-2 with Petersen and Adam Bracewell putting on 62 for the third wicket.
Bracewell made a run-a-ball 42 with eight fours but his dismissal to Pandey then sparked the start of a costly collapse.
Petersen, who scored a remarkable 396 runs in the competition last season, swapped the aggression he had shown in blazing his way to a match-winning hundred at Nelson the previous day for a more patient knock.
But when the South African nicked one five runs short of a half-century, after facing 81 balls with three fours, Enfield's hopes of setting a big enough target disappeared.
Now they look forward to a derby clash with Church on Sunday with Bracewell eager to make up for the cup disappointment.
He added: "We are playing only Sundays for the next three of four weeks, so hopefully with a settled side we will knock a few teams over and carry on from where we left off last Saturday at Nelson."
