FARNWORTH will play for a place in the last four in the country in the ECB national Twenty20 competition on Sunday after a complaint against them was dismissed by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The Lavender Road men convincingly beat favourites Ormskirk, from the Liverpool Competition ECB Premier League, in the Lancashire semi-final a fortnight ago to earn a place in Sunday’s final against Northern League champions Netherfield.

The winners will then meet Clifton in the Northern final – both games taking place at Netherfield – for a place in the last four in England.

After beating Liverpool Competition Premier Division league leaders Ormskirk by a resounding 28 runs, a complaint was made by an unknown party or parties that Farnworth’s professional, Kamran Younis, had played for Blackpool in the Northern League’s T20 competition earlier in the season.

The ECB judged in Farnworth’s favour on the basis professionals may play for clubs in another league in league T20 competitions.

Professionals are prohibited from playing for another club once the national T20 competition –which is run by the ECB and features the winners of all leagues’ competitions in the county – begins on July 30.

Farnworth captain, Simon Booth, said this Sunday represented “a massive day” for his club.

“We’re two games from being in the last four in the country and playing on national finals day at Derby where the highlights will be on Sky TV,” he said.

“It was disappointing this complaint was made because we’d done nothing wrong.

“Clubs borrow other clubs’ pros in the league T20s. We also borrowed Greenmount’s pro in the Bolton League competition when Kamran wasn’t available and the same pro then played against us for Horwich on the finals day. It happens, it’s not breaking any rules.

“We don’t know who made the complaint, and the ECB won’t tell us, so we can only assume it might be embarrassing for someone.

“It doesn’t seem real that Farnworth could be in the last four in the country, but if we play like we’ve played so far we could do it which would be great for the club and the Bolton League.

“But we beat Ormskirk fair and square and they were favourites to win the whole thing, so if we can beat them we’ve got to think we can beat anyone.”

Before that Farnworth have a big game in the league tomorrow when they travel to Horwich looking to maintain their lead in the Premiership Division.

“If we win four of our last six games we’ll win the league,” said Booth.

“We’ve done well but we’ve only put ourselves in a position to win it.

“We’ve got to carry on doing what we’ve been doing all season.

“We’ve not changed anything that we were doing last season. Just everyone has stepped up and we’ve got a great camaraderie.

“We’re the same team apart from a couple of changes – Jonny Kerrigan has been a great signing and Danny Higham’s done well since joining from Westhoughton.

“Ross Sutton – a Farnworth lad – is doing well with bat and ball and so’s Nakash Qamar who’s the form player, and Imran Mirza is playing well.

“It’s a massive weekend for us, we never do well at Horwich, they’re our bogey side, then Sunday is what it is, a big day for the club.

“Both take priority. It’s up to us now to play on the day.”