East Bierley clinched the JCT600 Bradford League's Sovereign Health Care Priestley Cup for the eighth time today after holding off the determined challenge of Manningham Mills to win by 30 runs in the re-staged final at Spen Victoria.

It was hard not to feel sympathy for the brave Mills side as they had been in a dominant position when the original game was washed out with East Bierley on the ropes at 99-6.

In the first game, Iqbal Khan produced a stunning ten over spell of 1-7 but not even a man-of-the-match winning 4-32 and a hard-hit 40 from Noman Ali was enough to stop Bierley.

With bad weather forecast, the league officials, umpires and two captains, agreed to reduce the match to 40 overs a side.

Just how wise a decision that proved to be was underlined when heavy rain started falling only moments after Bierley skipper Lee Goddard had received the cup from MCC president Philip Hodson.

Goddard admitted afterwards: "That was a good call. It was certainly getting too dark to play a longer game and the 40 over contest turned out to be a good match."

Goddard, who missed the original game after having his appendix removed, added: "For me personally it was good to be playing back at my old club Spen.

"There was a bit in the wicket for the bowlers but you could also get runs on it. It was a good cricket wicket and I really enjoyed the match.

"Manningham Mills are a dangerous side with good players and even when we had them eight wickets down, we couldn't relax. They are a good bunch of lads and they never give up."

Goddard also revealed that he was relieved when Neil Gill claimed the final wicket.

He admitted: "I hadn't worked my bowlers out properly and if they had survived Neil's over I was going to have to bowl one."

He added: "I had been swapping my bowlers around to vary the pace because so many of the Mills players are good hitters. I will admit now, it is good when it works out but I could have been left with egg on my face too."

Manningham Mills skipper Masood Ahmed, who was "proud of his team's effort," said that he felt a number of his side's batsmen had got out to poor shots because they feared that bad weather was going to intervene again.

"We knew that once we had got beyond ten overs in our innings that the match could be decided on overall run rate," he said.

"I know I got myself out trying to increase the tempo, and others did too. We should have just concentrated on the job of accumulating runs and keeping our focus on the East Bierley total.

"As it was we were bowled out in 36.2 overs. If we had concentrated on batting out our overs it is possible we could have won."

Throughout the match was a compelling contest for the spectators who took advantage of free admission to witness the final match of a depressingly wet summer.

Thankfully the forecasts of heavy rain failed to materialise and instead the crowd were treated to a fitting finale.

When Mills won the toss they had no hesitation in asking Bierley to bat.

The ball moved around in the opening overs and the decision looked to be a good one as Zeeshan Qasim and Iqbal Khan utilised the conditions.

With openers Gavin Hamilton and Mark Gill both going cheaply, Goddard and Andrew Rennison were faced with a rebuilding job.

Together they added 89 for the third wicket before Rennison, one ball after reaching his half-century with a six, holed out for 51.

He had hit a six and seven fours , but once again had been dismissed when you felt he should have gone on to a bigger score.

There was perhaps no grounds for Goddard to reprimand his partner as he too was dismissed for 51, straight after reaching his half-century.