Match Day 5th July- 2003 MORECAMBE CRASH, DARWEN RECOVER TO WIN By Gerry Wolstenholme It was a day of surprises in the Northern Premier League on Saturday when three of the top six teams suffered defeats. Morecambe were well beaten by a resurgent Preston, Kendal narrowly lost to Blackpool and Chorley similarly suffered defeat at the hands of Leyland Motors. This, coupled with wins for St Annes and Netherfield, significantly changed the picture at the top of the table. That is except for leaders Darwen who were in a certain amount of trouble against Leyland only for Andrew Mercer, who had already excelled with the ball, to make a stunning 68 not out to see his side home. At West Cliff it was Preston who stunned everyone with a scintillating performance both with bat and ball. They took first knock after both captains agreed to bat and field respectively without the formality of a toss and, for the second week in succession they made over 200. This time it was 246-5 with Pervez Shah making 100 not out with two sixes and 10 fours and Raouf Akbar making 79 with three sixes and seven fours. The pair shared a 152-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Morecambe in reply got off to a good start and had reached 54-2 when the disasters struck. They lost their last eight wickets for just 34 runs as Manoj Parekh, 4-16, and Akbar, 4-45, bowled them out for 88 to give their side victory by a massive 158 runs. For Morecambe Ramesh Powar's 25 was the top score while Mark Woodhead, 19, Phil Dennison, 16, and Faruk Patel, 10, were the only others in double figures. Kendal were in all sorts of trouble from the start against Blackpool and were in the doldrums at 27-6. And, despite 37 from Kabir Khan, they never really recovered as they were bowled out for just 88 with Deon Kruis taking 5-36, Steven Croft 3-32 and Dave Higham 2-18. Captain Dave Fallows had felt that a score of 100 would have been enough for them to win and perhaps he was right for Blackpool made heavy weather of their target and scraped in by one wicket at 89-9 with the dependable Martin Hackett and Ross Parker carrying them home. Kevin Howarth did his utmost to prevent Blackpool's victory but his 5-25 was ultimately in vain as Mark Lomas made 30 and extras contributed a most valuable 18. In a close game at Sandy Lane, Leyland Motors made 157-9 with Asif Ashraf carrying on his good batting form with 51 that was the backbone of Motors' total. Richard Rounding's 27 not out was the next best effort while Hanif Patel made 26 and Peter Cummings 22. Stephen John took 4-36 against his former employers. Ian Mawdsley then made 58, Neil Senior 40 and Nigel Heaton 25 for Chorley but the rest were not of much help as they lost by five runs, managing only 152 all out with Ashraf also starring with the ball, taking 6-36. David Makinson took 3-23 as he and Ashraf removed the last five men for just 18 runs. St Annes moved into contention with a convincing win against Lancaster who batted first and could only manage 152-6 with Ben Simm making a top score of 43 not out and Danny Hagen 28 with Michael Baer taking 4-61. Gareth Evans was in good form in the St Annes reply and he was undefeated at the end with 75 including 11 fours from 130 balls as St Annes won by eight wickets at 154-2. At Broadwater it was a day for the South African professionals as first Lloyd Ferreira hit 114 not out and compatriot Pieter Strydom replied with a fine 84 not out. Of the rest only Grahame Clarke with 44 made any significant impact as Netherfield overhauled Fleetwood's 208-6 by scoring 209-5 and winning by five wickets. Finally Darwen. They did well to restrict Leyland to only 143-7 as Andrew Mercer picked up 5-61. But then things did not go according to Darwen's plan as early wickets were lost cheaply. But in stepped Mercer to score 68 not out and, with Jeff Hacking 28 not out as his partner, take his side to 145-5 and victory by five wickets. Darwen thus maintained their lead at the top of the table as those around them faltered. Scores in brief (home sides in bold): Leyland 143-7 (Mercer 5-61), Darwen 145-5 (Mercer 68*) Leyland 3 points, Darwen 12 points Fleetwood 208-6 (Ferreira 114*), Netherfield 209-5 (Strydom 84*, Clarke 44) Fleetwood 5 points, Netherfield 12 points Kendal 88 (Kruis 5-36), Blackpool 89-9 (Howarth 5-25) Kendal 4 points, Blackpool 12 points Leyland Motors 157-9 (Ashraf 51, John 4-36), Chorley 152 (Mawdsley 58, Ashraf 6-36) Leyland Motors 15 points, Chorley 5 points Preston 246-5 (Shah 100*, Akbar 79), Morecambe 88 (Parekh 4-16, Akbar 4-45) Preston 15 points, Morecambe 2 points Lancaster 152-6 (Simm 43*, Baer 4-61), St Annes 154-2 (Evans 75*) St Annes 12 points, Lancaster 1 point NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE DIVISION ONE Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Darwen 13 2 5 1 0 2 3 13 119 Preston 13 4 2 1 0 4 2 17 113 Morecambe 13 1 6 0 1 3 2 10 106 St Annes 13 1 3 3 2 1 3 29 106 Netherfield 13 1 4 1 2 2 3 17 98 Kendal 13 3 0 1 2 4 3 32 95 Chorley 13 1 2 3 0 4 3 30 93 Leyland Motors 13 3 0 1 2 6 1 29 84 Fleetwood 13 0 4 0 2 6 1 29 83 Lancaster 13 0 2 2 4 3 2 37 81 Blackpool 13 0 2 2 1 6 2 31 72 Leyland 13 2 0 1 0 7 3 20 66 ACTION REPLAY: A DAY FOR THE SOUTH AFRICANS Fleetwood 208-6, Netherfield 209-5 By Gerry Wolstenholme This was very much a day for the South African professionals as first Fleetwood's Lloyd Ferreira scored his second century of the season but he was then outshone, but not outscored, by Netherfield's Pieter Strydom who made a sublime 84 not out. Fleetwood took first strike and lost John Wright early as he failed to move his feet and Ryan Wilson bowled him for four at 14-1. Michael Dewhurst, dropped at the wicket on 15, and Ferreira, dropped at mid-off on 29, then took control and added 96 runs for the second wicket. Dewhurst was the early aggressor as Ferreira found his feet but once into the 30s Dewhurst's runs dried up and he struggled a little to reach 38 before he edged a ball from Scott Clement to Gareth White and was gone at 110-2. Thereafter it was all Ferreira as only Michael Clinning with 15 reached double figures as Fleetwood somehow lost their way from a promising position. They also lost wickets in trying to attack every ball instead of taking singles now and again to keep the scoreboard moving. Clinning ran himself out when calling a surprised Ferreira for a third run and Strydom's throw beat him to the crease and that was 178-3. It was quickly 178-4 when Marc Hadwin bowled Zac Taylor, 186-5 when Hadwin similarly accounted for John Whalley, five, and 188-6 when Andy Singleton, one, was leg before wicket also to Hadwin. James Ellis, nine not out, then accompanied Ferreira to the end of the innings at 208-6. Ferreira's 114 not out had come from 145 balls with two sixes and 15 fours while Hadwin was the most successful bowler with 3-66. Netherfield's reply began promisingly with White and Craig Walmsley playing some good shots all around the ground but when they reached 29, White, 15, had his head in the air playing an expansive stroke as Steve Hill bowled him. Walmsley made 18 before Hague bowled him at 47-2. Grahame Clarke then took over the bulk of the scoring while Strydom simply occupied the crease and scored the odd run. But it was the calm before the storm as far as the South African was concerned for once Clarke skied a shot to Singleton at extra cover for 44 off Taylor he simply dominated proceedings. Rishi Girdhari gave him good support as he made 27 before falling leg before wicket to Dave Fish at 158 and one run later Chris Parry was bowled Hill for nought. Tommy Prime then came to the crease and he gave the professional good support as Strydom hit the bad ball out of the ground and took singles that were on offer at other times. It was timed to perfection so that when Strydom drove his eighth boundary, to add to his two sixes, it was all over. Netherfield had 209-5 and had won by five wickets with seven balls of the final 20 overs remaining. Second Division scores in brief (home side in bold): Kendal 198 (Dugdale 41), Blackpool 201-7 (Griffiths 61*, Cragg 42) Kendal 6 points, Blackpool 12 points Leyland Motors 112 (Catterall D 4-29), Chorley 87 (Richardson 40, Cottam 5-27, Afsar 5-19) Leyland Motors 15 points, Chorley 4 points Lancaster 197-7 (Yadav 41), St Annes 198-8 (Kellett 53, Speak 4-54) Lancaster 6 points, St Annes 12 points Darwen 208-5 dec (Painter 79), Leyland 137-6 Darwen 9 points, Leyland 3 points Morecambe 204-6 (Errington 77*, Milner 46, Kaye 4-30), Preston 159 (Southall 43, Cupit 5-27) Morecambe 15 points, Preston 3 points Fleetwood 189-7 (Whiteside 52), Netherfield 114 (Blundell 4-23) Fleetwood 15 points, Netherfield 3 points NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE DIVISION TWO Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Darwen 13 2 7 2 1 0 1 12 139 Leyland Motors 13 3 6 0 1 1 2 5 131 St Annes 13 1 5 3 0 2 2 26 121 Morecambe 13 1 5 2 2 1 2 16 109 Chorley 13 1 5 0 2 3 2 19 104 Fleetwood 12 3 2 1 1 4 1 18 96 Preston 13 2 0 3 1 5 2 31 82 Netherfield 13 2 1 1 0 8 1 26 76 Blackpool 12 0 3 0 4 3 2 24 72 Lancaster 13 1 1 1 0 8 2 33 72 Kendal 13 0 0 1 1 9 2 38 51 Leyland 13 0 2 0 1 9 1 20 49

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