Read has caught cup fever. The village which most people see for only a couple of minutes as they drive along the A671 is now the centre of cricket in the area. For next Sunday the village team meets North-Cumbrian side Bomarsund Welfare in the quarter-finals of the Haig National Village Cricket Championship.

Club officials have strung a banner across the main road through the village advertising the tie, and villagers are getting keyed up for the match which will take Read within one game of the Haig Cup Final at Lord's if they win it. Club secretary Mr David Wymer said yesterday, 5th August 1974: "Interest in the match is really high in the village and we're also expecting people coming from Blackburn and Preston as well as Burnley to see the game."