Cockermouth will be using a substitute professional for the remaining five games of the North Lancs & Cumbria League season.

South African all-rounder Mkhululi Calana was released from his contract in order to return home for treatment to a stress fracture in his back.

Calana plays for the Border District back home in South Africa, and the club is anxious for him to receive treatment ahead of their season which is due to start shortly.

Secretary Geoff Minshaw said: “His stats weren’t particularly good but he hasn’t been able to bowl for a fair slice of the season because of the injury.

“A lot of the South African professionals do go home a bit earlier than the others because of the proximity to their season.

“It does mean we will be able to ring in a sub professional for the remaining matches. We were just a little too late in getting one sorted last week after the announcement on Mkhululi.”

Minshaw is hoping that another South Afrcan, left arm spinner Ernest Kemm will be able to play tomorrow when Cockermouth visit title chasing Furness.

So far for Bacup in the strong Lancashire League, Kemm has scored 755 runs at 47.2 and taken 42 wickets at 14.0 in all matches. He has just re-signed for the 2018 season.

“He has stepped in for us before and is a very good cricketer so we hope that we can get him sorted for Saturday,” said Minshaw.

Bacup don’t have a game tomorrow but play Accrington on Sunday.

Last week Cockermouth beat bottom side Dalton by 30 runs after opener and skipper Gareth White had made 100 out of their total of 206-7.

Chris Hodgson took 5-33 when Dalton were bowled out for 176 in the 47th over.

The odds are stacking up against Dalton now, bottom of the pile with 58 points. Above them are Cockermouth (78), Wigton (73) and Keswick (73).

All four have tough games tomorrow – Dalton go to Cleator; Wigton are at Workington; Cockermouth travel to Furness and Keswick host Carlisle.

Workington increased their lead over Furness to eight points through beating Cleator, while their rivals were rained off at Carlisle.

This looked for a long time to be a game Workington were going to lose after winning the toss and batting.

They lost wickets at regular intervals with Kristian Moffat (33), Callum Moffat (27) and Adam Chambers (23) being the main contributors. David Rooney took 5-22.

The Cleator reply started well with David Watson and pro Kavindu Kulasekara putting on 35. Watson was out for 23 but the score progressed to 87-3 when Adam Chambers removed Kulasekara for 29.

They then lost five wickets for seven runs and slumped to 95-8 only James Rogers with 24 offering much resistance.

They finished 109 all out after 42.1 overs with Chambers taking 5-14.