DARWEN IN A DITHER
By Gerry Wolstenholme
It was very much a case of life imitating art, or at least imitating the title of a classic thriller, at Stanley Park on Saturday. Raymond Chandler's novel The Big Sleep would have provided an apt backdrop for the early proceedings as Darwen's batting struggled to keep any of the spectators awake! But unlike Chandler's novel, thriller the game was not.
Batting first because as skipper Jeff Hacking said "We have done nothing batting second so we thought we would give it a change", the east Lancashire side disappointed with a measly 82 all out made in 48.5 overs and Blackpool replied with 83-3 from 24.4 overs to win very very comfortably by seven wickets. And it was all over just after half past five.
When Darwen skipper Jeff Hacking won the toss he should have informed opening batsman Mike Horsfield of the fact. For while Horsfield was at the wicket he seemed unsure as to what day it was, never mind whether he was batting, bowling or fielding. In fairness he was at the end to which Blackpool professional Marcus Sharp was bowling, and bowling admirably with movement and good line and length. It did, however, take 47 balls for Sharp to remove Horsfield from his nightmare by which time the somnambulant opener had made exactly one run, and that taken from Croft at the other end.
Horsfield was third man out with the total on a miserable 19 from the same number of overs and someone remarked, perhaps a trifle unfairly, perhaps tongue-in-cheek or perhaps even truthfully, that his was the worst Northern Premier League innings on record. Whatever the case may be he did survive playing and missing an awful lot of times before Sharp produced one that went through the customary forward defensive push to rattle the stumps.
By then fellow opener Chris Lowe, five, had edged the pacy Croft through to wicketkeeper Martin Hackett who took a regulation catch and professional Keith Semple, after two good looking boundaries, lost his middle stump when he played over a ball from Darren Walton. Sharp meanwhile was plugging away, mainly unsuccessfully but very parsimoniously, at the other end.
Gareth and Neil Cordingley threatened a recovery until an error in judgement cost them dearly. After playing the ball away for two runs, a wayward throw defeated the wicketkeeper and ran on into the outfield so the pair decided to scamper another run. But it was not there and Gavin Armstrong gathered the loose ball and Gareth Cordingley was run out for 21, an innings that included three sweetly struck fours of the eight that the innings was eventually to contain. And then, on his 71st ball Sharp had the first run taken from the bat off his bowling as his previous 70 balls had produced just a single wide. Before taking a rest, Neil Cordingley did ruin his figures even further by driving him for three through mid-off to leave Sharp, the best bowler of the innings by far, with the thrifty figures of 14-11-5-1.
Fifty-two for four very quickly became 57-5 as John Cordingley shuffled across his stumps to be leg before wicket to Croft for two. Neil Cordingley, having resisted for 69 balls, was next to go when he played away from his body at a wide ball going even wider and got the toe of the bat to it. The ball flew high over extra cover where Armstrong running backwards and then diving full length took a tremendous catch to end Cordingley's promising innings at 15.
Thereafter it was an even quicker procession back to the pavilion as Walton and Chris Barrow wrapped up the innings. Jeff Hacking, nine, edged Walton to Sharp at slip to make it 79-7 and Graham Parkinson, two and well forward, was leg before wicket to Barrow without addition to the total. It became 82-9 when Jamie Nichol edged Walton through to Paul Danson at slip for two. And then it was 82 all out when Barrow bowled Mark Bennett also for two. Aside from Sharp's magnificent performance, Walton took 4-25, Barrow 2-20 and Croft, the best of the other bowlers, 2-25.
Blackpool's task seemed an easy one unless Darwen could make immediate inroads into the batting. And when 11 had come from the first two overs the writing was already on the wall. Semple had hearts fluttering slightly as first he removed Richard Lamb who was trapped in front of his stumps for four and then had Armstrong, 11, well caught by a diving Neil Cordingley in the gully. And at 16-2 Blackpool were wobbling, but only slightly.
It became 37-3 when Danson fell leg before wicket to Hacking for 12 but that was the limit of the Darwen success as Lomas and Croft put on an almost untroubled 46 to win the game. The only worry came when it was too late; Lomas pulled a ball off leg stump only for Horsfield at square leg to drop the skied catch. Lomas profited by a single to take his score to 26 not out and Croft finished on 22 not out as Blackpool wrapped the game up by seven wickets as 83-3.
And so an early finish on a cold day was unexpected but perhaps what the few patrons wanted so they could get home early to the warmth and comfort of their fireside. And to finish on the literary note that we started, American humorist Dorothy Parker once wrote "How do people go to sleep? I'm afraid I've lost the knack. I might try busting myself smartly over the temple with the nightlight. I might repeat to myself, slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound; if I can remember any of the damn things." She would have had no problem at Stanley Park on 9 June 2001 and to her list of things to do to induce sleep she could have added, "I might recall watching some batting by Darwen's Mike Horsfield." Sleep would have quickly followed!
Bay 96.9 Northern Premier League Second Division abbreviated scoreboards:
Darwen 181-4 (Jackson 77*), Blackpool 112-2 (Mercer 52, Aga 43*)
Fleetwood 171-4 dec (Hague 41), Leyland Motors 123 (Hague 4-27)
Leyland 76 (Dennison 5-34), Lancaster 77-6
Preston 160 (Houldsworth 5-8), Chorley 161-4 (Richardson 44, Critchley 43)
Netherfield 151-8 (Gates 5-60), Morecambe 152-5 (Tingle 63*, Izatt 55)
Kendal 142 (Schmid 48, Booth 6-32), St Annes 143-3 (Kellett 42*)
