Colne’s season came to an end on Sunday, with the expected defeat at the hands of champions Accrington.
Colne started the season with some optimism and with some close matches, with May and June enlivened by wins in the Worsley Cup and the Twenty20 Cup twice.
But by the end of the season it appeared that heads had dropped and the players went into matches expecting to lose, which they duly did.
Colne won the toss and chose to bat. It was an unusual innings, with two 50-plus partnerships contributing to a total of only 142 all out.
Billy Jamil and Khurrum Nazir scored 25 each and put on 53 in a careful second-wicket partnership, and sub-pro Mohammed Jamal, borrowed from Read, scored 44, and with Matthew Walker (26) put on 68 for the fifth.
When these two were together, a total of 170-190 didn’t seem out of reach, but the last five wickets were worth just 12 runs. In the event, it is doubtful whether double the total would have been enough.
Accrington made a brisk enough start, with 53 runs in the first 10 overs. David Wallbank had Sneddon lbw for a duck, and Daneyal Qasim induced an edge by Accrington pro Ashar Zaidi to Tillotson behind the stumps when he had made 11 – but the chance went down. The second wicket partnership was worth 93 before Duerden took the wicket of Shah for 29, at which point Accrington were 95-2.
The main interest now was whether Zaidi could break the Accrington batting record, set by Bobby Simpson in 1959. He had reached 50 and needed 40 more runs for the record.
Simon Hanson was willing to play an anchor role to give Zaidi his chance, and he took it in spectacular fashion.
The innings lasted only four more overs as Zaidi hit boundaries galore off Rhodes and Duerden, and he finished with 91 not out from 66 balls, including 13 fours and 4 sixes.
Accrington made 144-2 from 17.4 overs, and the game was over by half past five.