When Bradford & Bingley were an astonishing six wickets down for seven runs against Manningham Mills on Saturday, nervous home supporters could have been forgiven for reaching into their glove compartment to consult their JCT600 Brad-ford League handbooks.

Just what was the lowest league score ever? The answer is ten by Baildon Green against Windhill in 1914.

Bingley comfortably surpassed that in the end, being dismissed for 48, but were still shell-shocked afterwards by both their batting display - four wickets falling in four balls as Gemaal Hussain took his second hat-trick of the season - and by Mills virtually doubling their score to 179 for nine when they had been 90 for eight.

However, the glory goes to Mills. All their three bowlers had Woodlands-type figures' - Gemaal Hussain taking five for 12, leg-spinner Amar Rashid two for eight and Nasser Jamal two for 24.

Only Richard McCarthy, with 26 at No 8, made double figures for Bingley, with No 10 Jamal (37 not out), No 8 Mohammed Siad (36), Asif Hussain (33) and Ahsan Butt (26) making decent contributions for the visitors.

Asif Hussain and Butt put on 46 for Mills' third wicket and, when Bingley were lacking inspiration in the field, Siad and Jamal added 49 for the visitors' ninth wicket.

Batting looked an awful lot harder though when it was Mills' turn to field as batsman either made serious misjudgements or calls, or just edged decent deliveries into the cordon of men behind the wicket.

Gemaal Hussain, who bagged three in three on the first day of the season against Cleckheaton - the only other occasion I have watched Mills this campaign - wasn't at all confident that his team would win at tea.

The 6ft 5in paceman said: "I told someone we need a miracle to win this, and was told You are opening the bowling so it is up to you'.

"But all I was trying to do was put the ball in the right area and get them to play at every one, and once I got the first wicket I felt in rhythm and then each ball was going exactly where I wanted it to go."

As for his second hat-trick of 2007, he said: "The first ball (to Scott Etherington) was pretty orthodox, swinging away from off stump, and he edged it and the second ball I packed the offside and bowled an inswinger to the left-hander (David Clow) and he left it... off stump out of the ground.

"And the third ball, I set the batsman up for a short one by putting in a leg slip and a deep square, and again it was an orthodox awayswinger and he (Mark Beckett) was already on the back foot and managed to edge it to second slip."

The ball after that, however, was the most bizarre as Chris Thompson was run out going for a third run to the vacant mid-on area.

Hussain continued: "There was no-one at mid-on or midwicket and he played an on-drive so I had to run for it myself, picked the ball up close to the boundary, swung round and threw it in.

"I heard the fielders making quite a noise, which usually means the bowler's end, and I could see the batsman was struggling.

"I thought that he was going to be out as soon as I threw it in and our skipper Mahboob Huss-ain received the ball quite well and took the stumps."

He said of Mills' three-pronged bowling attack: "Nasser is so consistent - he just puts it on the spot, moves it both ways and teases the batsman until they get out. And Amar's leg-spin is coming on really well. He has got all the tricks, gives it a good flight and it's just a matter of confidence with him."

Craig Cockshott, back in the Bingley side after five weeks out with a broken finger, said: "Most of what happened after tea stemmed from what happened before it, when we had them at 90 for eight.

"They added another 89 and batted well but we never went for the jugular, and that is really, really disappointing."