Match Day 26th July 2003 ST ANNES CLOSE THE GAP AS THEY WIN AN ... RESULTS GO THEIR WAY By Gerry Wolstenholme St Annes split the two pace makers, Darwen and Morecambe, after Saturday's results as they were the only side in the top three to win. They now sit 10 points behind leaders Darwen who they meet in the penultimate game of the season. At Vernon Road St Annes made a clinical job of defeating Chorley after the visitors had posted an impressive 202-3 with captain James Fazackerley making 76, Nigel Heaton 51 not out and Tom Smith 44. The St Annes reply faltered at first but then flourished as the target neared and a magnificent 91 not out by Duncan Whalley was the backbone of their 205-5 that gave them victory by five wickets. Darwen meanwhile could not get the better of Netherfield who batted first and made 183-8 with Gareth White making 44, with one six and five fours, and Chris Parry 42 not out. Gareth Cordingley took 3-48 and Andrew Mercer and Keith Semple each had two wickets. Darwen's reply included 70 from Keith Semple, with one six and six fours, and 57 not out from Jeff Hacking but it was not enough as they closed on 176-6 and had to settle for the draw. Morecambe had a much less happy day. They began well by dismissing Kendal for just 96 with the irrepressible Peter Stephens taking 5-51 and Simon Little's 17 being the best effort with the bat. But then disaster struck in the form of Terry Hunte the bowler as he took 7-35 to reduce Morecambe to 81 all out and defeat by 15 runs. Even their final 81 was manna from heaven for at one time they were a disastrous 48-8! Only 25 from Faruk Patel and 17 from Gareth Pedder enabled them to reach such dizzy heights. Kevin Howarth took the other three Morecambe wickets for 26 runs. Lancaster comfortably accounted for Leyland Motors who were dismissed for just 121 at Lune Road with James Aspinwall top scoring with 57 not out and David Makinson's 19 being the best of the rest. Ben Simm took 5-52 and Renier Munnik 4-53 for Lancaster. Danny Hagen, 62, with one six and nine fours, and David Heywood, 55 not out, with 10 fours, helped their side through to 124-2 and victory by eight-wickets. Motors tried nine bowlers in their vainglorious efforts to take wickets with only Sifton Prince and Braithwaite being successful. Leyland made only 127 at Fox Road but it turned out to be enough for a win as Fleetwood, comfortably into the 90s with only four wickets down, subsided to 123 all out to lose by four runs; indeed the last seven Fleetwood wickets went down for just 34 runs. Fleetwood's Steve Hill had a career-best at this level with 6-34 but it turned out to be in vain as only the last three for Leyland showed any form with the bat, Afsar making 25, Yusuf 19 and Edwards 11. It was similar for Fleetwood whose top four reached double figures but thereafter only number 11 Dave Fish with 11 got there Zubair Patel's 3-12 from 10 overs was the best for bowling for Leyland as the wickets were shared around. Finally Blackpool had a change of fortune when they beat Preston at Stanley Park. Pervez Shah, dropped before he had scored, made a top score of 45 in Preston's modest 155-9 in which Steven Croft took 3-26 and there were two wickets each for Deon Kruis, Paul Danson and Darron Walton. But the very much in-form Croft topped Shah's effort with 63 and Walton had 33 not out in Blackpool's reply of 156-5 that gave them a five-wicket win. Results in brief (home sides in bold): Preston 155-9 (Shah 45), Blackpool 156-5 (Croft 63) Preston 3 points, Blackpool 12 points Netherfield 183-8 (White 44, Parry 42*), Darwen 176-6 (Semple 70, Hacking 57*) Netherfield 9 points, Darwen 6 points Kendal 96 (Stephens 5-51), Morecambe 81 (Hunte 7-35) Kendal 15 points, Morecambe 4 points Leyland Motors 121 (Aspinwall 57*, Simm 5-52, Munnik 4-53), Lancaster 124-2 (Hagen 62, Heywood 55*) Leyland Motors 0 points, Lancaster 12 points Leyland 127 (Hill 6-34), Fleetwood 127 Leyland 15 points, Fleetwood 4 points Chorley 202-3 (Fazackerley 76, Heaton 51*, Smith T 44), St Annes 205-5 (Whalley 91*) Chorley 5 points, St Annes 12 points NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE DIVISION ONE Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Darwen 15 3 5 1 1 2 3 18 140 St Annes 15 1 5 3 2 1 3 29 130 Morecambe 15 2 6 0 1 4 2 14 125 Kendal 15 5 0 1 2 4 3 32 125 Netherfield 15 2 4 2 2 2 3 22 122 Preston 15 4 2 1 0 6 2 24 120 Chorley 15 1 2 4 0 5 3 41 108 Lancaster 15 0 3 2 4 4 2 39 95 Fleetwood 15 0 4 0 3 7 1 37 92 Leyland Motors 15 3 0 1 2 8 1 33 88 Blackpool 15 0 3 2 1 7 2 34 87 Leyland 15 3 0 1 0 8 3 22 83 ACTION REPLAY: TEAM WORK SEES ST ANNES THROUGH Chorley 202-3, St Annes 205-5 By Gerry Wolstenholme It was good all-round teamwork led by captain Geoff Love that saw St Annes through to victory against Chorley at Vernon Road on Saturday. They did not bowl and field as well as they can do and Chorley took advantage to the tune of 202-3 in a reduced 55 overs. Then three early wickets were lost but the middle order batsmen, particularly the impressive Duncan Whalley, made good the damage and in the end there were six overs and three balls remaining when St Annes reached 205-5 to win by five wickets. It was St Annes who had the first success early on when Ian Mawdsley was caught at slip by Love off Steve Twist for four and that was 5-1.Tom Smith and Jim Fazackerley then added 92 runs but not completely untroubled as far as the Chorley captain was concerned. He was missed from a stumping on 22 and at deep square leg on 24, and later he had two further lives behind the wicket, a stumping and a catch. But it was Smith who was first to go when he overbalanced to Michael Baer and was smartly stumped for 44 at 97-2. Fazackerley and Nigel Heaton then added a further 74 runs before the captain was bowled by Love for 76 made from 100 balls with 10 fours. Heaton went on to 51 not out from 60 balls with two sixes and four fours and with Stephen John, not at his batting best, ending on six not out, Chorley closed on 202-3. The St Annes reply was in tatters after just 10 overs by which time they were 23-3 with Gareth Evans, dropped twice already, caught by Fazackerley off John for eight, Twist run out for one and Adrian Darlington caught behind by Neil Senior off Bill Smith for 11. Love and Whalley then set about restoring the innings and with some attacking play from Whalley and some watchful defence by Love they added 66 runs for the fourth wicket. At this point Love was leg before wicket to Heaton for 27. Adam Cotton entered the fray and stamped his own mark on proceedings with a quick-fire 32 made from 45 balls with one six and five fours before Heaton took an excellent catch at wide long on off Bill Smith and it was 137-5. That was where Chorley success ended as Whalley and Russ Bradley rushed to the victory target by taking 22 runs off two overs from leg spinner Ian Oakes, who perhaps should have been on earlier rather than later, and Whalley smote four boundaries off one Stephen John over. Bradley then drove John straight for four and it was over at 205-5, St Annes netting the 12 points and, with results favouring them, tucking themselves in second place 10 points behind leaders Darwen. Second Division scores in brief (home side in bold): Chorley 146-9 (Catterall D 48), St Annes 147-2 (Ashworth 45*, Boucher 44) Chorley 1 point, St Annes 12 points Fleetwood 197-6 dec (Bushcini 71), Leyland 158 (Pascal 58, Newman 4-43) Fleetwood 15 points, Leyland 3 points Lancaster 148 (Masterman 51*), Leyland Motors 152-4 (Watkinson 66*, Rounding J 52*) Lancaster 2 points Leyland Motors 12 points Kendal 163 (Barrington 59, Lee 8-51),Morecambe 70 (Brown 5-24) Kendal 15 points, Morecambe 4 points Darwen 170-9 (Clarke 72), Netherfield 73-7 (Cook 4-9) Darwen 9 points, Netherfield 5 points Preston 189-8 (Mann M 48, Wright 42, Taylor M 4-28), Blackpool 107-8 Preston 10 points, Blackpool 4 points NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE DIVISION TWO Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Darwen 15 2 7 3 1 1 1 19 150 Leyland Motors 15 3 7 0 2 1 2 7 146 St Annes 14 1 6 3 0 2 2 26 133 Fleetwood 15 4 2 3 1 4 1 29 130 Morecambe 15 1 5 3 2 2 2 27 124 Chorley 15 1 5 0 3 4 2 25 111 Preston 15 2 0 4 1 6 2 43 98 Netherfield 15 2 2 1 1 8 1 30 93 Lancaster 15 2 1 1 0 9 2 35 89 Blackpool 14 0 3 0 6 3 2 30 80 Kendal 15 1 1 1 1 9 2 38 78 Leyland 15 0 2 0 1 11 1 23 52

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