Chorley 233-5 St Annes 129 all out
Gerry Wolstenholme
Some early spectators at the Bay 96.9 Northern Premier League Division One game between second-placed St Annes and Chorley arrived in fancy dress straight from the local carnival. But it proved to be no fancy performance for the home side and there was no carnival atmosphere as Chorley, aided by some inspired captaincy from Roland Horridge, proved triumphant by 104 runs in a taught afternoon's cricket.
Chorley won the toss and, as is the captain's wont these days, batted. Neil Bannister got his side off to an ideal start with a quick-fire 21 before he lost a ball from Joe Davies in the murky background and was trapped back on his stumps with the total at 33. Tom Smith was watchful rather than productive and when Davies bowled him for eight the total had only advanced to 40. But that was St Annes' last success for over two hours as Horridge and Nigel Heaton produced a blistering partnership that had the St Annes bowlers wilting in the cool afternoon.
Both batsmen were severe on the bad ball and both found the fence eight times. Both had escapes, Horridge was missed behind by Duncan Whalley, who had an afternoon to forget rather than remember and the wicketkeeper was guilty again when Heaton advanced well down the track to Adam Cotton only for the stumping opportunity to go begging.
Undaunted the batsmen continued and they had added 144 runs in 121 minutes when the unexpected happened. Davies, the only St Annes bowler looking likely to take a wicket, returned to the attack and had Heaton well caught low down by a diving Dave Callaghan at extra cover for 68 made from 125 balls. Jim Fazackerley joined his captain at the crease and he hit one big six into the gardens down at long-off before Callaghan produced a ball that defeated his downward stroke to bowl him for 17.
That was 232-4 and rain had begun to fall with Horridge on 94 and looking likely to get a deserved century. But after one more run and with the rain falling heavier he swung, somewhat wildly, at Davies and had his stumps neatly rearranged. He had made 95 from 130 balls. Neither Neil Senior and Iqbal Patel received a ball as the umpires then conferred and took the players from the field with Chorley on 233-4 from 57.4 of the scheduled 60 overs. Joe Davies had taken 4-53 and Callaghan, 1-49, had the other wicket.
The rain had ceased by five o'clock and St Annes had 48 overs to try and knock off the runs. But the plans went very much awry when Chorley soon had four wickets down for only 29 runs.
Adrian Darlington was the first to go when he edged Josh Marquet through to Senior for five. Gareth Evans followed him back to the pavilion by the time the total had advanced to 14 when he too was caught by Senior off Patel. Callaghan played one delightful shot for four but when he had made 11 he drove Marquet back down the track and the bowler excelled himself to take a low tumbling catch. That was 24-3 and when Joe Davies was adjudged leg before wicket to Marquet for three St Annes was struggling at 29-4.
Russ Bradley and Adam Cotton battled hard to get the innings back on track and the former was missed twice in the slips by Marquet before, having made eight, he fell leg before wicket to Patel. Forty runs were then added for the sixth wicket as Cotton and Sean Bickerdike went for their shots and took advantage of the attacking field that had quite rightly been set. Bickerdike had made an entertaining 21 when he presented Senior with his third catch of the innings. He followed an outswinger from the newly brought-on Tom Smith and St Annes was in a sorry state at 83-6.
The seventh wicket to go down was the vital one of Cotton who, having batted very sensibly, suddenly had a rush of blood and skied Patel, now bowling with the wind, to wide mid-on where Banister ran round and took the high swirling catch. He was gone for 41, made from 67 balls with seven fours, and at 107-7 the game looked in the bag for Chorley.
However, late order resistance proved difficult to break down and Horridge made an inspired bowling change, bringing on Fazackerley with his gentle off-spin. His first over was a maiden but did have the advantage of making the batsman play every ball. His second was equally accurate but after Neil Bradley, who had battled hard for his nine, took a two through cover off the fifth ball he struck. Bradley, perhaps lulled into a false sense of security tried to turn the final ball round to fine leg only to miss and find himself trapped plumb in front of his stumps. That was 115-8 and it was quickly 118-9 as Dave Taylor could only get an edge to an excellent ball from Marquet and who else but Horridge at second slip comfortably pouched the catch
Three overs remained and Duncan Whalley and Roger Banks saw off almost two of them. But with the final ball of the penultimate over (and it was the sixth wicket of the innings to go down to the last ball of an over) Marquet banged one in just short of a length. Whalley failed to get a bat on it and he was out leg before wicket for 16. Banks was left not out nought, St Annes had managed only 129 and the Chorley players were jubilant with a 104-run victory and 15 points in the bag. Marquet was the star turn with 5-55 while Patel had 3-37 and Smith 1-9, not forgetting Fazackerley's 1-2. Roland Horridge was naturally delighted and he commented "I could have left the professional and Iqbal on but I thought it needed something different." It certainly did!
Bay 96.9 Northern Premier League Second Division
Abbreviated scoreboards (home team in bold):
Blackpool 149-9 (Brooks 59), Preston 119 (Dixon 42, Brooks 6-33)
Chorley 156-6 (Critchley 48*), St Annes 126-7 (A Taylor 52)
Leyland 69 (Sherlock 7-25), Fleetwood 71-2
Leyland Motors 70 (Dawson 4-9, Dennison 4-24), Lancaster 73-1
Morecambe 173-7 (Mashiter 69), Kendal 79
Netherfield 85 (Bonner 4-5, Heys 4-9), Darwen 86-4
