Tod beaten in T20 final

They looked to have a great chance when they restricted visitors Church to 118 for seven, only to slump to 79 for nine before last pair Graham Lalor and Hamza Ali took them close.

Tod, whose last major success came in the Worsley Cup shortly after the turn of the century, had won the toss for home advantage in the T20 final but lost the flip of the coin on Friday.

Church elected to bat and pro Zain Abbas top scored with 33. Only Joel Gaskill (23) and Sam Holt (18) also made double figures with Ali (2-17) and Lalor (2-23) leading a fine bowling effort.

Tod surely needed just one more fine innings from Ashton Turner to complete the job but it was not to be, the Western Australian departing to a low catch at point in the second over for four.

When Simon Newbitt (4) and Elliott Gilford (0) also departed with the score on 15, alarm bells were ringing for the hosts.

Gaskill then removed Freddie Priestley (11), skipper Andrew Sutcliffe (2) and Kristian Garland (2) as well as catching Ben Sutcliffe (17) off Bilal Abbas as the game seemingly slipped beyond Todmorden.

Down to their last pair, Lalor called for a new bat and hit 15 off the first four balls of the penultimate over, bowled by Church skipper Levi Wolfenden.

However, 16 were needed off the last over, bowled by Abbas, and only four were forthcoming before Lalor was stumped off the last ball for 25.