Both GREAT HARWOOD and OSWALDTWISTLE IMMANUEL beat the rain on Saturday to record wins in the Ribblesdale League and further their ambitions in the upper section of the table.

Harwood closed the gap on leaders Clitheroe, whose game was abandoned, by beating Salesbury away in a game that was reduced to 27 overs.

Jack Edgar was the mainstay of the Harwood batting as he once again carried his bat through the shortened allocation to end 53 not out in a total of 125-7, putting on a breezy unbroken stand of 54 with Stuart Maher, who made 25 not out.

That proved very much a winning stand too as Salesbury were restricted to 98-6, with Maher taking 4-23 off what would have been a straight-through 14-over spell apart from the fact that he was injured with two balls left to deliver.

Harwood now trail Clitheroe by just 12 points while Immanuel are in eighth place.

Immanuel got a 37-over game in on their first-ever visit to Brinscall and made good use of going in first, amassing 201-7.

Oliver Jones made 41 and Neil Weaver, who often scores useful runs down the order, made 45 at number seven.

Brinscall made a poor fist of their reply, captain Liam Winstanley (40) excepted, and they were bowled out for 79.

Andreas Sudnik claimed 4-24 and 17-year-old off-spinner Niall Heyes picking up 3-7.

BAXENDEN were due to have the weekend off in any case as the odd team out of the 17 senior clubs.

Bash captain Gary Sudworth is among the League side for the Inter-League T20 competition at Blackpool today (Friday), along with Great Harwood pair Charles Fernando and Stuart Maher.

WEEKEND TEAMS/FIXTURES
BAXENDEN
1ST XI V PADIHAM (A, SAT):
G Sudworth (c), R Staines, B Swindells, M Rishton, D Mills, C Waddington, D Bulcock, M Aspinall, M Schofield, K Smithson, A Iqbal. Scorer: O Marsden.

GREAT HARWOOD
1ST XI V EUXTON (A, SAT):
P Swanney, S Maher, C Fernando, A Armer, P Whalley, P Newton, S Ali, J Kayley, C Holt, I Haworth, J Wildermuth. Scorer: J Kendal. Meet Euxton 12.30.
2ND XI V EUXTON (H, SAT): L Noon, G Allen, M Oddie, M Bunn, B Poole, C Oddie, J Starkie, A Hussain, C Smith, L Dobson, D Briggs. Scorer: N Holt. Meet Cliffe 12.30.
3RD XI V READ (H, SUN): M Bunn, D Briggs, M Oddie, C Oddie, N Holt, D Holt, J Hutchison, S Zahid, R Holt, S Jones, A Masood. Scorer: J Bentham. Meet Cliffe 12.30.

OSWALDTWISTLE IMMANUEL
1ST XI V SETTLE (A, SAT), 2ND XI V SETTLE (H, SAT)