RADCLIFFE captain Chris Berry is hoping the success of the club's juniors can inspire the senior side to rediscover their early season form.

While the first team have struggled in recent weeks - losing six out of their seven Championship games to slip from top to fourth in the table - the youngsters are going from strength to strength.

The under-12s beat Urmston by 44 runs on Monday to win their divisional cup, while the u15s are battling it out with Clifton for the league title.

With a number of youngsters, including 15-year-olds Ryan Williams and Luke Enwistle, already making the step up to senior cricket, the skipper is hoping they can influence the seniors to end the season on a high.

"The juniors are doing well with most of the teams either winning their leagues or finishing near the top," said Berry.

"We've got some good kids coming through like Williams and Entwistle.

"It was unprecedented to see 15 year olds in the first team when I was that age. It shows how good these two players are."

The Homer Street men are at home to Ashton and away at local rivals Elton in a double header this weekend.

The fifth and sixth-placed sides are level on points and sit just two points below Radcliffe in the Central Lancashire League table, and Berry is keen to win both to stop his side from sliding any further down the league.

"It's a massive weekend for us.

"It's two games we need to win to get back on a run.

"The spirit within the side has not changed. It's still as good as it was a few weeks ago.

"We've got Martin Coates coming back in this weekend so we won't be far off full strength.

"We've let ourselves down in the last few weeks against the team's above us.

"It's not been a case of them having better players than us or being better than us, we just haven't performed on the day.

"We expect to beat Ashton at home and it will be our second trip to Elton.

"They are a strong side but they'll be having a few nightmares about our pro who smashed them around fhe park in the 20/20 earlier in the season.

"If we perform the way I know we can we'll get the 10 points."

With 38 points from their 14 games, Radcliffe now find themselves 22 points adrift of Crompton at the top of the table following a 45-run defeat at the leaders on Saturday.

Josh Tolley smashed his way to 73 including nine fours and Stephen Wright also hit 68 as Crompton totalled 201-8.

Raheel Majeed and Jimmy Dixon were the pick of the Radcliffe bowlers, taking 3-52 and 3-67 respectively.

Rizwan Javed went for a duck and fellow Radcliffe opener Usman Malik (12) was also dismissed cheaply as the visitors struggled to get going with the bat.

A half century from Majeed appeared to steady the innings.

The professional hit 61 and although skipper Berry (19), Saif Ur Rehman (13) Dixon (12) and Ryan Williams (12) all contributed, they were unable to deal with Andrew Yates.

The Crompton bowler ripped through the Radcliffe order taking 6-46 as the visitors could only muster 156 all out in reply.

"We bowled well with Jimmy Dixon in particular playing out of his skin.

"I kept him on for 18 overs solid and along with Saif Ur Rehman, Majeed and young Enwistle we did well to restrict them to 200.

"It was a gettable target and it was a better performance than last time when they bowled us out for 85.

"But batting wise we lacked a bit of strength.

"We need to start to gel with the bat like we were at the start of the season.

"We were going well and myself and the pro put on a good 50-partnership.

"Williams and Enwistle batted well and put on a near 30-run partnership for the ninth wicket. They got us over the line for us to get a point.

"Unfortunately, a couple of dropped catches here and there and a few umpires decisions going against us were the difference between us winning and losing."