THE future of the Cross Cup is yet to be decided after this season's competition was completed last Sunday.

Clifton beat Roe Green – both Greater Manchester Premier Division teams – in the final at Clifton last Sunday to win the oldest cricket competition in Lancashire.

The cup was not played for last year after the demise of the Bolton Association which has staged the competition since its first season in 1889.

It was brought back as a standalone competition this year by Association stalwart Eric Hogg helped by members of the executive of the Association which has been in suspension since it lost all its teams after the 2015 season.

Fifteen clubs entered this year's Cross Cup – which would have been 16 but for a misunderstanding involving one club who would have been accepted had the organisers known they wanted to play in it.

Most of the 15 entered full-strength teams and treated the competition seriously.

It is understood there is sufficient commitment and interest in the competition to continue again next year but its fate will not be decided until organisers have met to discuss its future.

Former Lancashire player and Clifton captain Gareth Cross scored 40 as his side posted 128 in the final before Roe Green were bowled out for 70.

Mr Hogg, who umpired the game along with Association chairman Frank Jackson – the latter believed to have become the oldest person ever to umpire a Cross Cup final – said: "It was a good game played in a decent spirit as all the games have.

"I'm pleased we managed to play for the Cross Cup again and keep interest in the Bolton Association going.

"It's been wonderful for me personally. It was a bud of an idea to organise the Cross Cup competition again this season because I wasn't keen on the idea of seeing the oldest cricket cup in Lancashire go into a museum where nobody would be interested in it and it not being played for.

"I have been pleased with the way most teams have gone about playing in the competition and I'm going to write to all the clubs who have played in it this season and given the competition the respect it deserves thanking them for entering and for the manner and spirit they have played in it, and to the umpires who have umpired the games."

SCORECARD

Cross Cup final

CLIFTON v ROE GREEN

Clifton won by 58 runs

Clifton

W Davidson b Emmett 11

A Holt c Kenyon b Hough 13

G Cross c Hough b L Williams 40

S Dorsey lbw b Emmett 2

J McCann c Birch b Hough 4

J Evans c A Williams b G Williams 15

L Hurt c Kenyon b Hough 9

C Lord lbw b Johnson 12

A Lord b L Williams 4

R Lord not out 8

M Wright c A Williams b L Williams 0

Extras 10

Total 128

Bowling: Emmett 9-2-29-2, Williams 9-2-32-1, Hough 9-0-28-3, Williams 7.4-2-24-3, Johnson 7-4-6-1, Jones 1-0-3-0.

Roe Green

D Jones b Hurt 5

J Birch c Evans b Hurt 3

A Williams run out 0

L Norris lbw b Cross 0

L Williams b Cross 4

J Bowers c Evans b McCann 3

G Emmett c Evans b McCann 9

A Hough lbw b Davidson 24

J Kenyon c Evans b McCann 4

B Johnson c Holt b Wright 1

G Williams not out 0

Extras 17

Total 70

Bowling: Cross 7-1-14-2, Hurt 6-1-14-2, Lord 6-0-16-0, McCann 9-6-8-3, Davidson 5-0-12-1, Wright 1.2-0-5-1.