Accrington v Ramsbottom
Saturday August 17th 1996

Lancashire League
Saturday August 17th	Score		Score
Accrington	174-5	Ramsbottom	171-9
Scorecard
Accrington (4pts) beat Ramsbottom (0pts) by 5 wickets

Accrington 1st XI 1996

Tofeeq Khan took a career best 6-49 and then professional Chad Grainger hit 94 to help bottom club Accrington to a 5 wicket win over title chasing Ramsbottom at Thorneyholme Road. Khan snapped up the wickets of openers Jack Simpson (14) and Ian Bell (20), professional Chris Harris (7), Steve Dearden (9), Chris Hall (24) and Ben Dack (1) in Ramsbottom's 171-9. Len Dewhurst (2-29) also picked up Alan Howarth (18) and Gary Dyson (35) who had put on 41 8th wicket with Azad Akram sending back Nick Riley. After Harris had sent back makeshift opener Tariq Hussain (0) at 4, Mark Stevenson (32) and Grainger put on 133 for the 2nd wicket to put the home side firmly in control. Grainger hit ten fours and three sixes before falling to Garfield Moreton. Stevenson was stumped by Simpson off Harris (4-69) at 155, but skipper Paul Barratt hit an unbeaten 32 to see Accrington home in the 41st over after losing Khan (0) and Stefan Heins (0) to Harris. Martin Whittle (0 not out) was also unbeaten at the close. The match was a replay after the original fixture was abandoned with Ramsbottom just 4 runs from victory the previous Sunday. Grainger top scored with 61 in Accrington's 102 all out, Harris taking 7-29 for Ramsbottom. Openers Simpson (66 not out) and Bell (29 not out) raced to 88 after just 13 overs against the Accrington seamers. The introduction of Dewhurst and Whittle slowed the scoring rate as just 11 runs came from the next five overs leaving Ramsbottom on 99, just 4 runs from victory when rain forced the game to be abandoned.