Match Day 23rd June 2001
RUNS GALORE
Gerry Wolstenholme
There were plenty of runs in the Bay 96.9 Northern Premier League round of matches last Saturday as four sides topped 200 and none were bowled out for less than the 100 that has plagued many in recent weeks. Surprisingly only one of the sides that passed the milestone, St Annes, won and one, Lancaster, also lost! The two others, Morecambe and Darwen had to settle for draws.
The best game of the day was undoubtedly at Vernon Road where St Annes overhauled a Lancaster total of 232 all out to score 233-5 and secure a five-wicket victory. Danny Hagen scored 70 for the visitors while Dave Callaghan made 60 to add to his 4-49 for St Annes but the innings of the game came from Adam Cotton who blasted 83 and was only out going for the win in the big way with two runs needed.
Morecambe's 220-5 declared was built around a classy century from Amol Muzumdar who made 106 but then Preston, who went into the last 20 overs with six wickets down and less than 100 on the board, valiantly held out to close at 159-8.
And the final 200-plus total came from Darwen where Neil Cordingley continued his good form with 75 not out and opener Chris Lowe made 71 in a total of 233-5. But despite skipper Jeff Hacking's 5-31 Leyland held on at 141-8 with stand-in professional (when will this ridiculous situation end?) Wanasenche making 50.
There were wins in the other three games for Kendal, Chorley and Netherfield. The last named made short shrift of Fleetwood at Broadwater where the home side collapsed from 77-0 to 165-9 thanks to some good spin bowling by Mark Hadwin, 5-41, and Pieter Strydom, 4-33. And in reply Tommy Prime led the way with 67 not out and he was ably assisted by Strydom who was out one short of his half-century.
Chorley picked up 12 points when Roland Horridge's side predictably defeated struggling Leyland Motors by five wickets. Motors batted first and made 126 with Rex 'The Rat' Purnell taking 4-58. Stephen John replied with 4-60 but it was not enough to prevent Chorley reaching 128-5 and a win that moved them up to fourth place. Neil Bannister top-scored for Chorley with 45.
Finally Kendal overcame Blackpool thanks to Terry Hunte, 49, and Kevin Howarth, 59, as the pair made the bulk of the 161-5 that was required to overtake Blackpool's 160 all out. Kabir Khan, returning after the tragic death of his father last weekend, took 5-28, and only Mark Lomas with 47 made any impression with the bat.
Bay 96.9 Northern Premier League First Division
Abbreviated scoreboards (home team in bold):
Darwen 233-5 (Cordingley N 75*, Lowe 71), Leyland 141-8 (Wanasenche 50,
Hacking 5-31)
Fleetwood 165-9 (Hadwin 5-41), Netherfield 167-4 (Prime 67*, Strydom 49)
Blackpool 160 (Lomas 47, Khan 5-28), Kendal 161-5 (Howarth 59, Hunte 49)
Leyland Motors 126 (Purnell 4-58), Chorley 128-5 (Bannister 45)
Morecambe 220-5 dec (Muzumdar 106), Preston 159-8
Lancaster 232 (Hagen 70, Callaghan 4-49), St Annes 233-5 (Cotton 83,
Callaghan 60)
Gerry's Match Of The Day
A GOOD START WASTED
By Gerry Wolstenholme
Fleetwood 165-9 Netherfield 167-4
A meeting of top and bottom clubs in the Bay 96.9 Northern Premier League sounds hardly one to set the pulses racing but an entertaining game at Fleetwood's Broadwater on Saturday gave spectators plenty to enthuse over. Netherfield got back on the winning trail with relative ease in the end but it did not look as though that would be the case after 20 overs of the Fleetwood innings that eventually closed at a most disappointing 165-9. Netherfield's reply was nicely paced and the 167-4 and consequent six-wicket victory came with 12.4 overs remaining.
It all started very promisingly for Fleetwood for, after John Wright had won the toss and decided to bat, he and Michael Dewhurst put on 77 for the first wicket. Dewhurst was the aggressor early on as he struck boundaries off both opening bowlers, Scott Clement and David Wheatman. Wright at that point was happy to play second fiddle and Dewhurst had 25 of the first 30 runs. Wright then got into his stride and with a series of well-struck boundaries he overhauled his partner.
And then, after four fruitless overs from young Ryan Wilson, on came Pieter Strydom and the scoring dried up to a trickle as both batsmen suddenly found it difficult to get the ball away. Then, when the total had reached 77 Dewhurst fatally played back to Strydom, who had consistently troubled him, to find himself bowled for 31. As so often happens after a good partnership, the other batsman was dismissed without addition of a run. And John Wright must have been disappointed to get out for Mark Hadwin's first ball was a long hop and Wright put it powerfully but straight into the hands of Walmsley at gully and he was gone for 38.
Strydom and Hadwin then put the shackles on the batsmen and even professional Craig Pryor could not get the scoreboard moving. He and Michael Clinning had put on 28 when Hadwin struck with his second wicket as Clinning, 13, edged a ball through to stand-in wicketkeeper Tommy Prime. The same pair were in action again when the total had advanced to 118 when Paul Willis, two, went the same way. And at 127 Andy Singleton was leg before wicket to Strydom for four.
Alex Laird hung about without troubling the scorers while 24 runs were painfully added by a seemingly out-of-sorts Pryor before Prime took his third catch of the innings to dismiss Laird off the excellent Strydom. Two runs later and Prior was gone for 43 made from 102 balls with six fours. He was bemused by Hadwin's leg spin and found his stumps rearranged and it was a sorry 153-7.
Twelve more runs were added while James French gave Prime his fourth catch of the innings off Hadwin and Chris Bushcini was guilty of ball-watching as his shot to the gully area was quite rightly considered a single by Stephen Hill. Bushcini set off late and was well out of his ground when the stumps were broken. Hill ended with four not out and Keith Riley three not out as the innings terminally declined to 165-9.
Hadwin and Strydom had both bowled magnificently with the former taking 5-41 from 19 overs and the latter taking 3-44 from 22 overs. And Fleetwood, seeing how well spin had controlled the game must have been bemoaning the fact that Jeremy Newman had unavoidably cried off early in the morning.
Craig Walmsley started the Netherfield reply off with a bang and he had made 20 of the 26 runs on the board when he was caught at slip by Pryor off Hill. This brought in Strydom who already had 449 League runs to his credit. And he started in fine form with five boundaries in his first 25 runs as no Fleetwood bowler could tie him down. Prime at this stage was playing a watchful game and was content with the three singles that he had made. But then he launched into two glorious cover drives in one over and this set him on his way.The pair added 84 runs in 86 minutes with the only alarm being a missed chance by Riley, standing up, off Strydom, before young James French produced a peach of a ball that turned Strydom round and had him edging to Pryor at slip for 49. His runs were made from 69 balls with 10 fours well despatched, often from the too many bad balls that he was provided with, to all parts of the ground. Nothing could have been worse for Fleetwood than to have dismissed Strydom only to see Grahame Clarke walking to the wicket. And, true to form, he cut Pryor for two fours in four balls but then, in attempting to pull a shorter ball, he only succeeded in lofting the ball to square leg where Dewhurst took the easiest of catches.
That was 131-3 and it was 158-4 when Paul Stewart, having been given a good going over by some short bowling by Pryor had a rush of blood and danced down the wicket to the leg spin of Dewhurst. He missed the ball by the proverbial mile and found himself stumped by Riley for nine. There was no time for Danny Welbourne to score any runs as Tommy Prime completed a superb knock by smiting Dewhurst for fours off successive balls to take his own score to 69 not out, made from 132 balls with 11 fours. The Netherfield total was then 167-4 and a six-wicket victory, giving Netherfield its seventh win of the season and inflicting on Fleetwood its ninth defeat. The most encouraging factor that Fleetwood can take from the game is that young James French produced another fine spell of bowling. His mandatory seven overs costing 23 runs for one wicket.
Fleetwood skipper John Wright said after the game "We were about 80 runs short of a good score which was disappointing after a good start. And then Tommy Prime did what we seem unable to do at the moment, he stuck in there and accumulated his runs." And he added, "It was a very good knock but, who knows, if we had taken the chance off Strydom it might have just given us a slight chance."
Bay 96.9 Northern Premier League Second Division
Abbreviated scoreboards:
Kendal 134-8 (Parkin 50*), Blackpool 137-3 (Mercer 65*)
Chorley 188-6 (Stanbury 49*), Leyland Motors 189-3 (Totham 75*)
St Annes 108 (Glover 6-30), Lancaster 109-2 (Ferro 43*)
Leyland 91, Darwen 97-1 (Hadfield 46*)
Preston 169-9 (Southall 45, Gates 5-61), Morecambe 170-4
Fleetwood 234-6 dec (Coultas 65, Wilkinson 53), Netherfield 162 (Boyd 68, Winder 45,
Sherlock 5-51)
