EDGWORTH will be hoping life in the Cross Cup begins again at 40 this year after reaching their first final in four decades.

The village side thumped Bolton Association league leaders Flixton by 10 wickets in Sunday’s semi-final to reach the final for the first time since 1974 – when they won the last of their seven titles.

And with overseas star Jaco Fourie continuing his scintillating form with both bat and ball, Edgworth will feel they can end that 40-year wait against a Bury side who bounced back from defeat to them in the league on Saturday to beat Daisy Hill in the other semi-final.

Edgworth made light work of their last-four tie with Fourie again the star performer.

Table-topping Flixton were restricted to just 112 in the first innings with Fourie taking 5-37. Only Matthew Mitten (31) and Stuart Lang (20) put up any real resistance.

The hosts then reached their modest target without losing a wicket in just 17.1 overs with Fourie ending unbeaten on 71 and Simon Lord scoring 27.

The other semi-final tie witnessed an incredibly high-scoring encounter with more than 500 runs shared between the two sides.

Daisy Hill won the toss and put Bury into bat but found it difficult from the start as visiting skipper Simon Belston and Mumtaz Mirza put on 125 for the first wicket.

Mirza fell agonisingly short of his half-century, out lbw on 49, but Belston went on to reach three figures with a score of 112.

The runs kept on flowing for Bury when the in-form Matt Twentyman showed devastating form with the bat to hit a quickfire 89.

His impact showed in the scoring with Bury on 222 after 44 overs before adding an incredible 69 runs in the final four overs – 16 of which came in the last six deliveries.

Bury ended on 291-4 with Paul Hart (4-102) taking all the wickets.

Daisy, who like Bury had been beaten the day earlier after a lacklustre batting display, saw wickets fall steadily in the reply but kept the scoreboard ticking over.

Paul Atherton scored 53 while brother Mark hit 37 and Amjad Khan chipped in with 23.

Bury pro Nekoli Parris did the damage with the ball with 4-61 but it was skipper Belston who took the crucial wickets of Daisy Hill captain Mark Wood and Mark Atherton.

The hosts fell 58 runs short, ending on 233 but contributed to a game played in a good spirit in front of a healthy crowd at St James Street.

Bury progressed to the final and have a chance to avenge their shock league loss to Edgworth on Saturday.