Skipper Tahir Khan hailed his side's team ethic as Bowling Old Lane were crowned Bradford League Division Two champions - returning to the top flight for the first time since 1998.

Khan believes their success is very much down to a great spirit within the camp.

"It's hard to put it into words," said the skipper.

"We haven't got any individual stars but we are a team of stars who work for each other.

"There are a few teams in the league who've paid a lot of money and signed up a lot of stars. But when the chips are down, it is the team that gets you through."

Old Lane clinched the championship on the penultimate weekend of their season, without a ball being bowled.

Their match at home to Yeadon was called off due to heavy rain but their celebrations could not begin in earnest until Manningham Mills' match at Lightcliffe was finally abandoned at about 3pm.

And the Birch Lane club's joy was made doubly sweet as the washout meant their second team also clinched promotion along with Saltaire.

Khan added: "All the hard work that has gone on during the season has paid off.

"Obviously we would have liked to have had a game and won it and gone up that way. It is a bit of an anti-climax, but I'm just glad we're there."

Success for Khan has come in only his first season as skipper at the club and he admitted: "If someone had said this would happen at the start of the season, I would have told them to stop having a laugh.

"It's not just down to me as captain. Everyone has worked really hard and everyone has put the performances in."

In a division regarded as the most competitive for many seasons, they are the one side who have managed to find genuine consistency over a sustained period.

"We won a few games early on which were very close," continued the Lane skipper.

"That got us thinking this could be our year'. And as the season went on, when teams can become more and more tired, we just seemed to get stronger and stronger."

Having pushed hot favourites Woodlands all the way in the Priestley Cup final, Khan believes his side have what it takes to hold their own with the big boys next season.

"We have a few things in mind but, based on what happened in the cup final, I don't think we need to make big changes - a bit of fine-tuning but that's about it."

Old Lane will be joined in the top-flight next season by Manningham Mills.

Skipper Mahboob Hussain praised match-winning Nasser Jamal as they celebrated promotion with a 52-run win at Windhill.

The victory earned them 18 points and they finished five ahead of Spen Victoria.

The Cleckheaton side suffered the frustration of missing out on promotion despite a comfortable six-wicket home win against Lightcliffe, whose defeat means they have to seek re-election.

Jamal struck five sixes in a crucial innings of 68 down the order, enabling Windhill to reach 224 - one short of a fourth batting point - before taking 5-48 as the bottom side were bowled out for 172.

Hussain said: "It is an amazing feeling. It is good for the club and good for the area and for the boys - they deserve it after a hard season - but we relied a lot on Jamal in this match.

"There have been one or two ups and downs in the season. We thought we should have won it more comfortably and it shows what a difficult and competitive division this is.

"Bowling Old Lane deserved the championship because they played superbly all the way through.

"I am mighty relieved - it has been a great achievement for the players and for Manningham - the result of hard work from a lot of people and a boost for inner-city cricket."

Old Lane were presented with the championship trophy before their final match at Undercliffe but then went down to their fifth defeat of the season.

Kamran Siddique, promoted in the batting order, top-scored with 56 and the champions made 226 for nine but opener James Clarke led Undercliffe to their eight-wicket victory with 110 not out, sharing an unbroken theird wicket stand of 154 with David Taylor who made 88 not out.