DARWEN are up against it in their bid for the Northern Cricket League championship. And it's largely because of the weather.

Seven of their games have already been abandoned while title favourites St Annes have lost only three matches to the summer storms.

There are just four points for a team whose game is called off and Darwen have had to sit it out and suffer as their rivals pick up as many as 15 points from their sunny afternoon exertions.

And Darwen will have to sweat it out this weekend as they have no fixture and hope the leaders drop points.

"It's been very disappointing," says chairman Matthew Grant.

"Our whole season has been disrupted and yet we are still in with a shout."

St Annes and Netherfield each have 158 points from 19 games while Darwen are on 157 from 19 and Morecambe have 153 from 19.

Darwen have lost only one game all season, a surprise away defeat to lowly Fleetwood when their fielding was very poor.

But hard-fought wins in the past two weeks over St Annes and Preston, where Chris Lowe was in determined form with the bat, have put the Birch Hall boys back into serious contention.

Skipper Keith Semple, in his last season before returning to the West Indies, hasn't hit top form with either bat or ball and professional Atif Ashraf has gone off the boil recently although his bowling has shown a marked improvement this season.

In between the showers Darwen, cup kings of last season, have had three first-round exits in various tournaments this time round.

The regular bowlers have struggled. Andrew Mercer hasn't shown his usual fire and it's been left to veteran Jeff Hacking to top the bowling averages.

He trundles em down these days with a deadly accuracy but it's hardly scary stuff.

Best so far was an excellent 7 for 28 at Carnforth.

Morecambe will struggle to hold on to their title but 2005 champions St Annes are firm favourites.

They have an easy run-in to the mid-September finish while Netherfield have some tricky matches.

Meanwhile, Chorley, who face Preston tomorrow, with five abandoned games behind them, are fighting out the wooden spoon with Carnforth and Blackpool.