In a season of astonishing batting collapses, Church won a scarcely credible victory as Haslingden pressed the self-destruct button.

Church had suffered a collapse of their own from a seemingly unconquerable position last weekend against Bacup and this time, they enjoyed watching their opposition fall away quickly.

Even the Church innings on Sunday was a topsy-turvy affair but it had nothing on what was to follow.

There was a 35-minute interruption after Haslingden chose to field and Church captain Craig Fergusson and Adam Greenwood got the visitors off to a steady start.

With five overs docked due to the stoppage, the pair upped the rate on resumption with Greenwood flourishing in the new opening role.

He looked a natural, hitting six boundaries in his 36 but, after posting 49 without loss aided by some abysmal fielding by the home side, his opening partner was bowled by Jake Neary and Greenwood gave opposing captain Graham Knowles a simple catch.

Nasser Hussain was caught behind as a tight spell from Eddie Shah stemmed the run rate and Menazar Mehmmood holed out to Lee Ingham to leave Church 91-4.

Pro Saeed Anwar was the mainstay and he and Mohammed Jamil added 55 off 10 overs before Anwar, who had gone to his half-century relatively circumspectly off 64 balls and struck 10 boundaries in his 59, disappointingly picked out Ingham in the deep off Shah.

That preceded a mini-crisis as Phil Howard was out next ball and Jamil run out in the following over.

But Phil Gilrane and brother Mark made amends with a terrific partnership of 43 to round the innings off, Phil 29 not out off 28 balls with three fours, Mark unbeaten on 15, each hitting a six.

Church’s 191-7 looked a decent total but Haslingden openers Knowles and pro Phil Hayes seemed on course to lay the foundations to pass it comfortably in posting a century stand, Church’s bowling ranks depleted by the absence of seamers Levi Wolfenden and Andrew Bentley.

Even when Knowles perished caught for 73, 17 overs to get another 89 with nine wickets in tact didn’t look too difficult.

Ingham was caught at cover trying to force it off Philip Gilrane with the score on 140-2 with nine overs remaining.

There still seemed little danger – but then mayhem ensued.

Off the last ball of the 37th over, Jack Taylor was run out and Hayes’ painstaking knock of 47 off 105 balls was ended soon by Anwar, and by now, panic stations had set in.

Muneeb Ahmed was caught by Mark Gilrane and, in the 40th over, Mark Griffin was run out and Rob Marcroft bowled for a duck as five wickets had gone down for 19 runs off 17 balls.

If that wasn’t bad enough for the now psychologically-damaged home side, Sam Kershaw was bowled by Jamil in the next over.

As the running between the wickets began to take on midweek pub league qualities, Neary became the third man run out.

When Shah was last man out, bowled by Jamil, Haslingden were 29 short of the target and had lost eight wickets for 18 runs in five and a half overs, Jamil ending with figures of 3-63 and Anwar 3-66.

It was magnificent high-pressure stuff if you were a Church fan, complete self-inflicted capitulation if you were flying Haslingden’s colours, but Church are not completely distanced from title aspirations in fifth place, 15 points behind the joint leaders.