Harris lights up the gloom WALSHAW and Elton being local rivals, when they meet one senses the intensity created which belies their relative positions in the league table.

Elton is a team packed with youngsters, Walshaw on the other hand is a mature outfit full of confidence, a team who expect to win.

Elton won the toss and asked Walshaw to bat. Nothing unusual in that nowadays. What at first glance was novel, was to see Harris accompanying Dyson to the crease. He has spent most of his time in the lower order, which not only limits his ability to build an innings, but also means he doesn't bat every match.

The pitch was soft and batsmen friendly, but this is to take nothing away from the way that Harris and Dyson set about the Elton attack.

Of the six bowlers used, only the professional, Chris Hall, came out with reasonable figures. He went for just over three runs per over. The remainder were best not written about. Another set-back for Elton was the fact that Kay was unable to bowl, as he is recovering from a broken bone in his foot.

The batsmen did have some luck with three catches being missed, but generally the ground fielding was good. Cover drives, square cuts and pulls were a feature of both batsmen, and Harris with a pull for six reached his 50 out of 89 in the 15th over.

Until he got into the 90s, nothing appeared to worry him. His anxiety showed at 93, when he half-heartedly hit a ball into the covers and was dropped. The early drama came however, when he was on 98 and play was interrupted by rain!

In the meantime, Dyson had perished. Receiving a short ball from Mark Goddard, who last year would have been receiving rather then delivering, his eyes lit up and 50 was his for the taking. He struck the ball firmly but directly to Pemberton who held the catch but fell over backwards, more from relief than anything else.

The first wicket had added 153 runs and there were still 21 overs left!

Collins came in with the idea of adding quick runs, but found it more difficult than he imagined.

Play resumed after an interruption of an hour and a quarter, and to the relieve of the Walshaw supporters, and especially his parents, Harris reached his "ton". Surprisingly it is the first century scored by a Walshaw batsman this season.

The innings was declared closed at 186 for one and the drizzle returned.

At this stage the game was effectively over, but news that Atherton were well placed in their match at Little Hulton kept the spectators and players hanging about in those depressing periods which only occur in cricket.

One of the highlights at this stage was was to observe the antics of one of the "Walshaw Wrinklies", who have sponsored the match. He was cooking huge steaks on a barbecue, so huge that any wrinkles that existed before would certainly disappear after consumption.

In gathering gloom, the Elton innings commenced at 7.07pm. Because of the delays they were to face 18 overs, so needed 10 an over to win.

Goddard and Riaz set about their task, but Fielding, the Walshaw pro, kept the rate down without looking like taking a wicket. It was off a long lop from Riley that Riaz was caught on the boundary by Faulkner. Hall then joined Goddard, and although the run rate increased, there was not going to be any result other than a draw.

Hornby replaced Hamilton, and with his first ball yorked Goddard (18) with the score 82 for two.

So a game which promised so much, petered out into a tame draw. Once again the weather was the winner.