By Gerry Wolstenholme
Wins for Darwen and Morecambe and a draw for nearest rivals Netherfield meant that the top two eased away from the rest at the head of the Northern Premier League table following the last round of results.
Darwen comfortably accounted for lack-lustre Fleetwood at Broadwater. Batting first, the leaders made 211 with the Cordingley brothers, John 50 and Gareth 48, leading the way. Gulam Bodi took 5-76 for Fleetwood in 17 overs. The Fleetwood reply never really got off the starting blocks as, after 18 for the first wicket, nine wickets were down for 50 runs. A partial, although meaningless in the context of the game, recovery saw them reach 89 all out to suffer defeat by 122 runs. Andrew Mercer kept up his phenomenal form with 6-44.
Morecambe meanwhile gathered in 12 points courtesy of a six-wicket win over St Annes who batted first. They made a reasonable 188-8 with Geoff Love back among the runs with 75 not out and Adrian Darlington making 46. But Ramesh Powar replied with 111 not out from Morecambe's winning 191-4.
Netherfield however could not get the better of Lancaster. They batted first at Parkside and made 155 as Ben Simm, 5-26, and Simon Gould, 4-30, ran through the batting. But determined bowling prevented Lancaster from achieving their target and Marc Hadwin's 4-40 was instrumental in keeping Lancaster to 131-8. So Netherfield took seven points to Lancaster's four.
Other winners on the day were Blackpool, Preston and Kendal. The last named closed the gap on third-placed Netherfield with 15 points at the expense of Leyland Motors. Kendal's 219-8 declared was always going to be too many for Motors who could not quite make a century, being 99 all out. In-form Kevin Howarth made 93 and Simon Little 46 for Kendal while it was good to see David Makinson taking 4-48 as his side lost by 120 runs.
Preston polished off Leyland at Fox Lane where Rudra Singh made 49 for the visitors and Pieter Koortzen took 5-69 for the home side. The result was Preston making 193-9 in their 57 overs. Leyland's reply was a worthy one with Andrew Gill top scoring with 40 but the wily Manoj Parekh, 5-53, and the speedy Raoul Akbar, 4-51, bowled them out for 176, 17 runs short of their target.
Finally Blackpool won a rather low-key game at Windsor Park.They made 124 all out thanks mainly to runs from the lower order. Stephen John took 5-57 and Mark Griffiths made 25 before Chorley were bowled out for just 87, the third total of less than 100 on the day. Neil Senior remained to the last but no-one could stay with him as David Brookes, Marcus Sharp and Oliver Newby took three wickets each.
Results in brief (home side in bold):
Blackpool 124 (48.5 overs) (John 5-57), Chorley 89 (35.4 overs)
Blackpool 15 points, Chorley 3 points
Darwen 211 (57 overs) (Cordingley J 50, Cordingley G 48, Bodi 5-76),
Fleetwood 89 (30 overs) (Mercer 6-44)
Darwen 15 points, Fleetwood 3 points
Preston 193-9 (57 overs) (Singh 49, Koortzen 5-69), Leyland 176 (no overs given)
(Gill 40, Parekh 5-53, Akbar 4-51)
Preston 15 points, Leyland 3 points
Kendal 219-8 dec (55.3 overs) (Howarth 93, Little 46, Makinson 4-48)
Leyland Motors 99 (36 overs)
Kendal 15 points, Leyland Motors 2 points
St Annes 188-8 (57 overs) (Love 75*, Darlington 46), Morecambe 191-4 (43.2 overs)
(Powar 111*)
St Annes 2 points, Morecambe 12 points
Netherfield 155 (56 overs) (Simm 5-26, Gould 4-30), Lancaster 131-8 (58 overs)
(Hadwin 4-40)
Netherfield 7 points, Lancaster 4 points