4th Jun 1978
West End, Liverpool Road, Burnley
From a match report by Peter Higgs:
Neither team emerged with great credit from a fairly boring derby match at the West End on Sunday, 4th June 1978. Burnley were on top almost throughout the match and won by four wickets. Yet they made such hard work of it at the finish – taking 43 minutes to score the last 22 runs – that it was hardly a stylish victory. Lowerhouse, in contrast, only began to make a match of it, when it was too late. With defeat staring them in the face they grabbed four wickets for 17 runs in the space of seven overs and made the Turf Moor team sweat for their last few runs after the result had seemed a formality.
The individual honours went to Burnley professional Shafiq, who is currently in the kind of match winning form expected from him when he was signed. His bowling figures of six for 19, followed by an immaculate innings of 41, were the dominant features of Burnley’s win. Skipper Roland Harrison, batting well after a sketchy start to the season hit a fine 34 and his opening partnership of 65 with Shafiq provided the only fluent stroke play of the day.
Lowerhouse get themselves into a losing position in the first half of their innings as they crawled to 30 for three in 17 overs, on a pitch of unreliable bounce. They suffered an early setback when Stephen Gee was trapped lbw by Shafiq with only four runs on the board and then lost professional Mohinder Amarnath to a controversial decision. He mishit a short delivery from Shafiq back down the pitch and the bowler dived to scoop the ball up. Amarnath appeared to think the catch was taken on the half-volley and stood his ground. But the umpire gave him out and with his departure went the West Ender’s chances of a good score. They got dreadfully bogged down by the accuracy of Shafiq and left-arm spinner Trevor Jones, making his first league appearance against his former colleagues.
The Lowerhouse total of 103 was never enough – and at one stage Burnley looked set to win in half their allotted 34 overs. With rain falling during the innings and threatening to curtail proceedings Burnley maintained a cracking early pace in their pursuit of five points.