If it isn't the rain it is the light - what a frustrating season it has been for cricket.

And the frustration continued at Bowling Old Lane yesterday, where the important relegation battle against Bradford & Bingley ended in stalemate after 11 overs were lost because of bad light.

As always, there were strong opinions as to whether the umpires made the right decision to take the players off the field, particularly as Bingley captain Carl Sharp was using his slow bowlers.

At that stage, Bingley were in the driving seat with Old Lane struggling on 100 for seven chasing the visitors' total of 216 for eight with 19 overs left.

When the light improved a little, the umpires brought the players back on to the field, but there were only eight overs left and, although the target was beyond Old Lane, Bingley hoped to take the remaining three wickets to win the match.

However, Sharp was still obliged to stay with his slow bowlers - Matthew Cockshott and David Clow - and, ironically, while they rarely looked like taking a wicket, Old Lane's eighth-wicket pair of Wajid Hussain and Bilal Ejaz took advantage of some attacking field placings to add 49 more runs.

This enabled Old Lane to gain their first batting point at 125 and they came within a run of a second batting point as they finished on 149 for seven with Ejaz, a former Bingley second-team player, hitting three sixes in his unbeaten 34.

The match began well for Bingley as Sharp and Phil Slater put on 139 for the first wicket before Slater was dismissed for 79 in the 35th over, including two sixes and nine fours.

But they could not build on that excellent start and lost eight wickets for 72 runs, including Sharp, who was fourth out at 183 for 80.

When Old Lane replied, first-change paceman Chris Thompson helped to put Bingley in charge by taking three quick wickets, reducing Old Lane from 56 for two to 61 for five.

He first removed opener Rashid Ramzan to halt his 32-run partnership with overseas player Shoaib Khan, and then dismissed Shoaib and wicketkeeper Imran Mirza in one over - both lbw.

Off-spinner Cockshott took two further wickets to leave Old Lane in trouble at 93 for seven, but Bilal and Wajid guided them to safety with their 56-run stand, aided by the break for bad light that ultimately shattered the winning hopes of both sides.

So, fourth-from-bottom Bingley - now 12 points in front of Old Lane - were left with nine points from the match and Old Lane seven, but the outcome satisfied neither side as they battle to avoid relegation.

Bingley skipper Carl Sharp said: "It was very gloomy, but we were bowling two spinners.

"It is a tricky one, but with two spinners there was no real danger. It is disappointing - we would have almost certainly have won the game even if we didn't bowl them out.

"We looked upon this match as crucial, but it has not happened for us.

"We would have liked to have maximum batting points, but 216 would have been difficult to get. We could have bowled better after the break, but I had to keep the spinners on to keep the game going."

Old Lane captain Zubair Najeeb said: "At one point we thought Bingley would make 260 or 270, but we did well to restrict them to 216.

"I told our batsmen to carry on playing, but they couldn't see at one end. I know we got another point when play resumed, but I don't think the weather had changed that much from when the umpires took the players off.

"Even with the spinners on it was still pretty dark. However, Bilal got us another point and that could be valuable at the end of the season."