THE Oddfellows Cup final, between Thongsbridge and Almondbury, was left delicately balanced when rain brought an abrupt halt.

Batting first at the Miry Lane ground, Cedar Court Conference side Almondbury made a respectable fist of their innings, making 192 thanks largely to Liam Brothers, who made 49, and Nadeem Latif who added 42 valuable runs.

Once again the star bowler for Thongsbridge was the irrepressible Ijaz Shah, who finished with the excellent figures of five for 55 to keep the visitors’ tally to manageable proportions.

When the Frank Platt Championship title-chasing side replied, Sajid Rasheed made a solid 30, after openers, brothers Ben (skipper) and Tom Raven-Hill had made 20 and 10 respectively.

But then Almondbury skipper Martin Sykes gave the lower-ranked team hope of pulling off an upset when he struck with three for 31 to help restrict the home side to 107-4 after 28 overs.

Rain then began to fall at around 6.15, and umpires Nick Oddy and David Haikings were left with no alternative but to call an official halt to the game at 7.30pm.

The match was due to resume last night with Thongsbridge needing a further 86 runs from the remaining 22 overs to take the Cup they narrowly missed out on last year when they came off second best in the final to Clayton West.

The two not out batsmen are Alex Kemp, who had just reached 10, and Tom Kemp, and with the useful Richard Wagstaff, Max Berry and Shah still to come, Thongsbridge will definitely fancy their chances of getting over the winning line.

Meanwhile, the second XI Earnshaw Cup final, between Clayton West and Delph & Dobcross, was called off altogether when rain prevented the match going beyond the 10-over cut-off point.

It will be now played in September.