Match Day 24th August 2002 TIME RUNNUING OUT FOR CHASING TWO By Gerry Wolstenholme With all three leading sides winning on Saturday, time is running out for Morecambe and Netherfield who trail leaders Darwen by 21 and 35 points respectively. Darwen had a relatively easy win at Vernon Road where the main point of interest was in Andrew Mercer whose three wickets gave him a new amateur bowling record at the club. He now has 71 wickets, beating Dave Bonner's 69-wicket haul in 1985. He started the afternoon with two in two balls and with Gareth Cordingley also bowling well, St Annes were restricted to 168-8 from their 57 overs. Gareth Evans on the day that his parents sponsored the game on their Silver Wedding Anniversary gave them the ideal present with a battling 52. Darwen's reply hinged around Gareth Cordingley whose 64 was the backbone of the 169-6 that gave them victory by four wickets. Morecambe meanwhile made short shrift of Chorley whose 179 all out owed much to Nigel Heaton's effort in making 59. Faruk Patel took 5-62 and Peter Stephens weighed in with 4-44. Morecambe got off to a good start thanks to openers Mark Woodhead and Phil Dennison, both of whom made 49 and when they had gone Ramesh Powar rattled up 61 not out so Morecambe's 180-4 gave them a six-wicket victory. David Makinson made 71 not out as Leyland Motors made a good total against Netherfield. But 181-9 proved not to be enough as the Cumbrians reached 185-6 and victory by four wickets. Stuart Nixon continued his good form with the ball taking 6-59 and Craig Walmsley did likewise with the bat knocking up a fine 65. The Blackpool/Leyland game was an early finisher as at Fox Lane the home side were dismissed for just 58 with Marcus Sharp taking 6-12. Blackpool took just 13 overs to score 59-1 and secure a nine wicket win.The game lasted only 37.3 overs in total. The Fleetwood/Preston game was another in which the side batting first did not reach three figures. But at least Fleetwood took 42.5 overs to crawl to 59. Manoj Parekh was fantastic in taking 8-9, reminding us of his days as a well-respected professional. Preston lost four early wickets but then recovered to reach 60-5 in 27.5 overs. Fourth-placed Kendal could not force a win at Shap Road in a rain restricted game. They batted first and made 133-4 from 34 overs with Terry Hunte making 47 not out and Mark South 46. Lancaster defended stoutly and in 26 overs reached 79-6 but it was enough to secure them a draw. Results in brief (home side in bold): Kendal 133-4 (34 overs) (Hunte 47*, South 46), Lancaster 79-6 Kendal 5 points Lancaster 1 point Leyland 58 (24.3 overs) (Sharp 6-12), Blackpool 59-1 (13 overs) Leyland 0 points, Blackpool 12 points Leyland Motors 181-9 (53 overs) (Makinson 71*, Nixon 6-59),Netherfield 185-6 (48 overs) (Walmsley 65) Leyland Motors 3 points, Netherfield 12 points Chorley 179 (51 overs) (Heaton 59, Patel 5-62, Stephens 4-44), Morecambe 180-4 (47.2 overs) (Powar 61*, Woodhead 49, Dennison 49) Chorley 1 point, Morecambe 12 points Fleetwood 59 (42.5 overs) (Parekh 8-9), Preston 60-5 (27.5 overs) Fleetwood 0 points, Preston 12 points St Annes 168-8 (57 overs) (Evans 52), Darwen 169-6 (49.2 overs) (Cordingley G 64) St Annes 2 points, Darwen 12 points BAY 96.9 NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE DIVISION ONE Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Darwen 19 5 7 4 0 0 3 13 200 Morecambe 19 2 11 0 1 3 2 8 179 Netherfield 19 3 6 4 1 2 3 19 165 Kendal 19 5 1 4 1 3 5 19 143 Blackpool 19 3 4 2 2 6 2 16 127 Chorley 19 2 4 1 4 5 3 15 108* Preston 19 4 1 1 0 9 4 13 105 Fleetwood 19 2 2 2 2 8 3 23 99 St Annes 19 1 2 1 6 6 3 29 90 Lancaster 19 1 0 4 5 6 3 33 81 Leyland 19 1 2 0 1 12 3 24 76 Leyland Motors 19 2 0 2 2 11 2 27 75 * 5 Points deducted ACTION REPLAY ST ANNES NO ANSWER TO DARWEN BOWLERS St Annes 168-8, Darwen 169-6 By Gerry Wolstenholme The Darwen bowlers held the St Annes batsmen in check for most of their 57 overs at Vernon Road on Saturday. The result was that the home side made 168-8 on a track that looked as though it would yield many more runs. Darwen paced their reply to a nicety and won by four wickets with five overs and four balls remaining, making 169-6. There were only 12 runs on the board when Andrew Mercer struck to equal the Darwen amateur bowling record. He had Jack Kelliher leg before wicket for seven and followed this up the very next ball be repeating the dose to a disbelieving Geoff Love. Stephen Twist only made eight before he got a leading edge to Gareth Cordingley who stooped low to gather in a difficult catch and that was 34-3, mainly thanks to Gareth Evans. Adrian Darlington made only two before he popped up a catch at short leg and Michael Horsfield swooped, gazelle-like, to accept the chance.That was 40-4 and it became 54-5 when Russ Bradley, four, was run out after a mix-up with Evans. hen came the most useful partnership of the innings as Evans and skipper Sean Bickerdike added 48 runs for the sixth wicket. Evans hit one beautiful four straight back past the bowler but perished when he tried to drive Jeff Hacking out of the ground. Mark Hadfield took the catch and Evans had gone for 52 made from 123 balls with six fours. Bickerdike reached 29 and then rashly went down the track to the returning Mercer only to swish, miss and see his stumps rearranged. He made 29 and his loss left St Annes at 121-7. Joe Davies hit 21 including a huge six into an adjacent garden but in trying to repeat the shot he got an outside edge and Stuart Grant at deep extra cover dived to take an excellent tumbling catch. From 137-8 Duncan Whalley and Adam Taylor put on a more than useful 31 runs for the ninth wicket but at the close St Annes had managed only 168-8, Whalley, another with a six into an adjacent garden, had 20 not out and Taylor 15 not out. Mercer's 3-43 gave him 71 wickets for the season to date but Gareth Cordingley's 10 over spell was supreme, bringing him 2-17 after opening with an uncharacteristic wide! Darwen's reply did not get off to the ideal start thanks to Davies who had three wickets inside his first seven overs. He disposed of Hadfield, three, to a caught and bowled, Semple, two, to a catch from Whalley, and Gary Jackson, 14, to a close catch by Bradley. And Darwen were on the ropes at 36-3. But Gareth Cordingley had started ominously well and he kept the scoreboard moving in seemingly effortless fashion. Chris Lowe helped him take the total to 65 before he fell to another good close catch by Bradley off Love and then John Cordingley joined his brother. The pair added 62 runs until John was bowled by Twist for 26. Gareth cruised past his half century and onwards towards the Darwen amateur batting record - to beat which he needed 121 runs at the start of play. He had made 64 of them, from 125 balls with five fours, when a ball from Love beat his forward push and just knocked off the leg bail on its way through. But by then Darwen were almost home. Graham Ainslie had gone in and opened his account with a couple of boundaries and he was still there with 20 not out when Grant hit the winning runs to give Darwen an important 12 points in their attempt to lift the title. Second Division results in brief (home team in bold): Chorley 100-7 (35 overs) (Lee 4-38), Morecambe 101-6 (34.2 overs) (Demming 4-24) Chorley 1 point, Morecambe 12 points St Annes 102-9 (35 overs) (Davies 5-24), Darwen 103-9 (35 overs) (Tummalapalli 6-41) St Annes 1 point, Darwen 12 points Fleetwood 177 (48.1 overs) (Dixon 5-44), Preston 122 (26 overs) Fleetwood 15 points, Preston 3 points Lancaster 199-7 (46 overs) (Dennison 62, Abdullah 57*), Kendal 136-7 (48 overs) (Caswell 41) Lancaster 7 points, Kendal 2 points Netherfield 134-3 (23.1 overs) (Haddrick 83), Leyland Motors 88-5 (26 overs) Netherfield 4 points, Leyland Motors 1 point BAY 96.9 NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE DIVISION TWO Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Lancaster 19 3 7 4 0 3 2 20 173 Morecambe 19 3 7 2 2 2 3 16 167 Fleetwood 19 4 5 5 0 4 1 22 166 Netherfield 19 5 2 1 4 2 5 17 144 St Annes 19 2 5 1 1 7 3 11 118 Darwen 19 0 6 1 3 5 4 16 111 Chorley 19 2 4 1 2 9 1 13 101 Leyland 19 2 2 3 2 7 3 17 97 Leyland Motors 19 1 4 1 2 8 3 10 91 Preston 19 3 0 2 2 9 3 21 88 Blackpool 19 2 1 2 3 9 2 23 84 Kendal 19 0 4 1 3 9 2 19 82

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