Bradshaw and Egerton are on course to repeat last year's final of the Hamer Cup. The draw has kept the two sides apart in tomorrow's two semi-finals but respective opponents Little Lever and Kearsley will be doing their utmost to prevent last year's finalists meeting again.

In fact Kearsley could make it doubly difficult for Egerton as they faced them in a league game at Longworth Road today before making the trip again tomorrow for the semi-final tie.

Egerton have had a couple of weeks they would rather forget. Unbeaten in the first half of the season, that run was ended two weeks ago when they were defeated by Little Lever and the following day they were knocked out of the Lancashire Knockout by Ribblesdale club Padiham.

Last week they were beaten at home by Tonge and although they still remain top of the table, their lead over Westhoughton has been cut to six points while chasing clubs Tonge, Kearsley and Walkden have all been able to make up ground. There's also the back injury that ruled out bowler Stuart Hornby from last weekend's matches, and Egerton are currently suffering their most miserable spell of the season. But a win tomorrow would quickly put that right.

In contrast Kearsley are on top form. Last week they skittled Little Lever by eight wickets, David White looks dangerous with either bat or ball, pro Darron Foy picked up seven wickets against Little Lever and in all, Dave Leonard's side look a confident outfit that will be difficult to beat. Over at The Rigbys, Bradshaw are keen to hold on to the trophy they won last year by 44 runs.

And they will start favourites to overturn a Little Lever side hoping to have recovered from that heavy defeat handed out by Kearsley last week.

Their cause has not been helped by a niggling injury to pro Paul Rayment that meant he was only able to bowl one over last week while skipper Anthony Hilton may not have recovered from a broken finger. Bradshaw's determination was vividly shown in the last round when against the odds they overhauled Walkden's 200 plus total in a match spread over four nights.

And with players of the quality of Dave Morris, Paul Tebay, Neil Johnson and Renee Potgieter plus pro Sajid Shah, they look to have the armoury to cope with whatever Little Lever can offer.

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