The 19 year-old hammered 5 sixes and 12 fours as he provided the backbone of his side's innings with a scintillating knock.

Town then took their turn at the crease and had the stuffing knocked out of them by Pool's overseas player Travis Rowe who took 4-10 off 14 superb overs as Town were restricted to 44-6 in reply.

With the second team game between two clubs already washed out, the first teams met at the Mill in what started as an example of the commitment to league cricket, and ended in farce.

The home side had worked well to get the pitch into playable condition in time for a delayed start, and having lost the toss, Pool batted first in the 41 over match.

Following the loss of a quick wicket, David Hardaker and Gavin Lyons progessed well on a difficult pitch.

With the addition of an excellent 43 from Clive Baldwin, the home side were looking in charge.

Wickets fell in the final run chase making the final score of 143 for 7 look less comfortable than it actually was.

After tea, Garforth started in pedestrian fashion. Richard Wilkinson bowled in his usual miserly manner and Gavin Lyons gave the batsmen plenty to think about.

At the halfway point Garforth were well behind the run rate, but the home side were short of wickets. Ian Clarke solved both of those problems as his introduction brought both in abundance.

As the game drew to its close, the result hung precariously in the balance. With over five overs remaining Gaforth required 32 runs, the Mill five wickets.

After two balls of the five overs gone, down came the rain. When the umpires took the players from the field for what turned out to be only moments, the farce ensued.

Despite the protestations of both sets of players and the agreement of both skippers, the umpires decided to interpret an unclear area in the league rules to reduce the overs by two.

In a stroke they rendered the preceding 77 overs meaningless. Two and a half overs of joke bowling brought the game to a joke close.

The irony of that decision is that after all the efforts of the sides, the outcome of a rain reduced game gave both sides fewer points than if they had not bothered playing at all.

Perhaps the time would have been better spent trying to think of when common sense dictated in league cricket, although the outcome would probably have been just as disappointing.

Due to rain there was no play in Esholt's Division One clash with Caribbean or Old Modernians game at Kirkstall.

In Division Two matches cancelled were Oulton v Olicanians, New Rover v Cookridge and Rothwell v Colton.

Secxond-placed Woodhouse reduced Lawnswood's lead in Division One to a single point when the side's met in a rain

ravaged game at Meanwood Road.

Rain ended the game with Woodhouse at 19-3 in reply to Lawnswood's 190. Woodhouse took six points from the game with Lawnswood having to be content with four.

Lawnswood 190 (F Iqbal 70, T Mehboob 57, M Siddique 5-41); *Woodhouse 19-3. Rain stopped play.

Roundhay 189-6 (M Abassi 56, R Marshall 41, A Conboy 3-43); *Leeds Police 96-2 (M Akram 31 no). Rain stopped play.

East Leeds 82-8 (J Dyson 32, K Watson 6-23); *Carlton 59-0 (M Schofield 36 no). Rain stopped play.

Khalsa 192-6 (R Vasu 40, M Fiaz 84); *Great Preston 55-6. Rain stopped play.

No play - Esholt v Caribbean, Kirkstall v Old Modernians.

Division Two

Pool 191-3 (P Henry 121 no); Otley Town 44-6 (T Ropwe 4-10). Rain stoppled play.

*Pool Mills 145-7 (C Baldwin 41, D Hardaker 37); Garforth 119-5 (I Clarke 3-44). Rain.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.