BURNLEY's Greenhill forgot their league form and secured a great first round Autumn cup win against the villagers from Turton.

Playing at Darwen's Two Gates they showed that, while still at the bottom of the league, they can still upset any team on their day. In the other cup clash at Sunnybank, Bar Lane with a narrow three chalk advantage, moved into the second round at the expense of their championship rivals Darwen Subs. The Subs will be disappointed after years of being one of the league cup specialists while the Lane will now have a league and cup double in their sights.

North West Fire Protection Merit: With only six games left Glynn Shuttleworth from Colne Cricket heads the merit by a large margin and looks set to carry off the trophy. That other merit perennial John Bentley from Darwen Subs leads the chasing pack with John Mort from Turton who has hit a rich vein of form recently. Merv Yarwood in fourth from Bolton's Bar Lane seems to be the only other contender with a large gap back to fifth place Graham Wood of the Glove nearly a half century off the leader. With over 100 players representing the 10 teams the fight for merit points will not be easily come by between now and the end of the season and Shuttleworth will be a hard man to catch.

P W L D Pt

Colne Cricket ... 12 8 4 0 106

Bar Lane ... 11 7 4 0 102

Darwen Subs... 12 9 3 0 100

Globe ... 11 7 3 1 89

St Andrews ... 11 7 3 1 81

Turton... 11 5 5 1 73

East Lancs ... 10 5 5 0 70

R Utility ... 12 3 9 0 68

Colne Br Leg ... 12 3 9 0 60

Greenhill ... 12 1 10 1 49

Merit

W Ave

G Shuttleworth... 11 100

J Bentley... 10 75

J Mort... 8 75

M Yarwood... 9 73

G Wood... 8 55

A Handford... 8 53

A Starkie... 5 44

S Clamp... 8 43

W McClellan... 7 43

D Whittle... 6 43