Werneth must get it right to stave off drop

CRICKET: THE 2014 Lake Garage CLL season closes this weekend with most of the major issues already decided.

Pride of place must go to Norden, who have completely dominated the league. The first team has won the premier division title, the JW Lees Bitter Wood Cup and the JW Lees Bitter Tom Hardman Twenty20 competition.

Norden’s second stringers have been equally impressive, landing the Second X1 premier division crown and the Burton Cup.

Norden have the chance to put some icing on the cake on Sunday when they represent the CLL against Ormskirk in the final of the LCB Cup at St Anne’s CC.

Walsden will finish runners-up in the Premier Division, while Royton still entertain hopes of a fourth-placed finish. They need to win both their matches this weekend and hope Littleborough draw a blank.

The main issue to be resolved in the premier division is which team will go down.

Following a superb weekend Werneth seemed to have put Rochdale in the role of relegation favourite, but the Coppice side’s home defeat by Heywood and Rochdale’s win at Clifton have left Werneth in a bad position.

They must beat Royton on Saturday and hope Rochdale lose their final two games - the second one against themselves.

For long periods of the season, Crompton looked likely to gain promotion from the Championship.

But the excellence of champions elect Monton and Weaste and improvement shown by second-placed Unsworth means they will come up short.

Oldham have one more weekend to get enough points to avoid collecting the wooden spoon.