CRAVEN's Ribblesdale League trio suffered a humbling experience at the weekend when all three sides were beaten twice in a disappointing whitewash.

Coming so soon after the up-beat mood which launched the start of another campaign, the six-match series of defeats is bound to have damaged confidence, although there is obviously plenty of time for Barnoldswick, Earby and Settle to rescue the situation and get back among the front runners.

Earby will certainly need to improve their batting form if they are to make a serious bid for honours. On Saturday at Great Harwood, decent bowling and field appeared to have put the visitors in the stronger position at the interval. Only a good knock of 62 by professional Farhan Adil kept the show on the road as the home side totalled 142, Glyn Sedman producing a 6-33 return to claim the bowling honours.

Adil then underlined his qualities as a genuine all-rounder to claim 5-28 in 16 overs as Earby were dismissed for only 93, good quality work in the field being squandered by a poor showing with the bat.

The following day at Edenfield, they managed to restrict the home side to 133-9 in their 45-over allocation, mid-order man Pye the only player to really make an impact with an invaluable unbeaten 49. With Alex Scholefield's economical 23-over spell yielding 2-44 and Steven Hipgrave and Trevor Kegg picking up relatively cheap wickets, the visitors should have been in position to take the points.

Instead, they succumbed to the bowling of professional Martin Lewis who produced a 7-57 display.

Neil Hodge tried to hold things together with a half-century from 84 balls that included eight fours and Scholefield weighed in with 27, but their colleague found runs hard to come by and the side was finally dismissed for 118.

Neighbours Barnoldswick are in a similar vein at the moment. They failed to reach three figures on Saturday when they went down by six wickets to Clitheroe and although they improved with a 129-9 tally at Baxenden the following day, they were still 24 runs adrift of their target.

Professional Dexter Fitton was the author of their downfall at Clitheroe. He returned figures of 6-12 from a 15.4 over spell to put the skids under the visitors, who were all out for 97. While Raja Arshad produced a tidy spell which brought him 3-29 from 18 tight overs, Clitheroe got home by six wickets with three overs in hand.

On Sunday, Barnoldswick probably recognised that they would struggle when Baxenden reached 153-6 in their overs.

Paul Beech provided the back-bone of his side's reply with a forceful innings of 47 which included six fours and a six, but support was thin on the ground. No 10 Sid Sheraz did as well as anyone with an unbeaten 13, but the innings closed at 129-9.

Settle's assertion that they have an attack that can test the best obviously has some cachet, but they still have some work to do on the batting front if they are to make an impact. They were dismissed for 94 in response to Blackburn Northern's 166-7 and then could reach only 126-8 against Read, last season's third-placed club overtaking them with only two wickets down.