WEST Craven neighbours Earby and Barnoldswick both suffered major batting collapses in the Senior Division of the Veka Ribblesdale League last weekend, leaving their bowlers with little prospect of rescuing the position.
As a consequence, both sides were beaten, Earby falling to league leaders Read and Barnoldswick going down to bottom club Whalley.
Earby gave Read a decent run for their money at The Applegarth nevertheless, but finally paid the price for having eight batsmen who failed to reach double figures as Mohammed Ayub produced another high-quality batting display to finish with 81 of their 131 total.
If Read thought that they might canter to victory, they were quickly disabused of the idea when opener Eastham went for a duck, but they finally got home with three wickets in hand.
Neighbours Barnoldswick suffered a similar fate when they collapsed to 112 all out. Tt took Whalley 36 overs to reach their target for the loss of four wickets.
Settle, meanwhile, extended their winning league sequence to 15 games with an 89-run win at Blackburn Northern.
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