THE Association paraded two of their brightest stars on Saturday when Atherton's Karl Brown came up against Clifton's Andrew Griffiths.

On the day, 15-year-old Lancashire Academy player Brown took the honours but not before Griffiths played his part in a match that ended with only two runs separating the two teams.

Atherton made something of a slow start but when Brown came to the wicket it proved the catalyst for an improvement to the run rate.

Brown hit 59 with a variety of good shots and Philip Wakefield responded with an unbeaten 39 and Philip West 28.

That helped Atherton to 160-6, a reasonable total on a rain affected wicket but Clifton looked to be in charge as they raced to 50-1 and then 105-3.

Griffiths had made a useful contribution to that with a stylish 31 while Mark Gardner went on to hit 50 and Steve Holt came in with a useful 21.

Unfortunately, the run rate slowed and when Clifton tried to accelerate, Atherton started to pick up wickets, David Baines taking 3-33 and Paul Brown 2-45.

By the time the last ball came along, Clifton needed three to win but a run out saw them finish agonisingly short, but with a share of the draw at 158-9.

Blackrod, still without a pro, managed to scramble a home draw against Elton.

The Bury side's pro Dexter Fitton dominated the early part of the game with an unbeaten 72, while Reid added 31 in a total of 185.

Against that Blackrod were always in some trouble but were indebted to Joey Pryle and Chris Sanderson for a total of 134-8 after both hit 32. The weather intervened at Edgworth and prevented any play in their game against Adlington.

Golborne picked up a heartening win at the expense of Little Hulton.

Ashley Perry was the early hero for Little Hulton as his innings of 76 helped them to a total of 175-4 but Golborne answered that with a solid batting display and good contributions through the order, Leo Cooke 39 and Graham Marston's 30 the pick of the innings.

Lostock's game with Daisy Hill ended in a draw, pro Neil Bannister hitting 64 in Daisy's 155-9 and Stephen Kay 50 not out to help Lostock recover from 49-4 to 127-4.