KENDAL TAKE THE 15 POINTS
Kendal 236/6, Fleetwood 73
By Gerry Wolstenholme
It was almost a stroll in the park for Kendal on Saturday when they comfortably defeated Fleetwood by a massive 163 runs at Broadwater practically without breaking sweat. They won the toss and batted knowing that to have any chance of winning the title they needed the maximum 15 points. They then looked likely to reach something in the region of 250 or 260 but eventually had to settle for a more modest, but still acceptable, 236-6. This proved to be far too many for a lacklustre Fleetwood side that capitulated for a measly 73, which meant defeat by far too many.
The writing was on the wall when Martin South and Simon Little opened for Kendal as the two batsmen looked in little difficulty in the early part of the innings. Indeed, even though both batsmen gave chances, they went serenely on to have over 100 on the board before they were parted. The first chance was given by South who lofted a shot to extra cover when Michael Clinning misjudged it and the ball fell to earth with the batsman taking a single to move him on to 36. Ironically Little's chance was also given when he was 35. He drove a ball back at Paul Hague and that chance too went to ground.
So it was 104 before the first wicket fell, that of Little, 51 made from 94 balls with one six and five fours. Clinning bowled him at that point and this brought in Terry Hunte. It could have gone worse for Fleetwood with Hunte at the wicket but he looked somewhat out of sorts and he only made 17 before playing a loose shot to a ball from Tom Blundell for Clinning to take the catch at extra cover. That was 146-2.
It was 164-3 when Steve Hill bowled Najeeb Rehmani for seven and then 172-4 when he repeated the dose to Kevin Howarth, one. Dave Fallows came in and made a quick 17 before he holed out at mid-wicket to John Wright off Clinning at 205-5 and one run later Kabir Khan was leg before wicket to Lloyd Ferreira, giving the South African professional his second wicket of the summer.
While these wickets were falling South continued untroubled at the other end although he was becalmed through the 80s and 90s. But his deserved century eventually came and then he cut loose to hit a further very speedy 15 runs although he did have another life when Clinning dropped a caught and bowled chance when he had 109. He finished with 115 not out made from 156 balls with 13 fours and with Chris Florence showing some urgency to make a quick nine not out, Kendal closed on an impressive 236-6. Hill, 2-60, and Clinning, 2-63, had the best returns but young Tom Blundell whose 12 overs went for only 36 runs was the best of the bunch.
The way Fleetwood had been batting of late the likelihood of a victory was perhaps remote and it very soon looked a million miles away when the first three wickets fell for only five runs. Khan bowled Clinning for nought, to make it a thoroughly miserable day for the Fleetwood captain, and Howarth had Wright, three, caught at mid-wicket and followed this with Dewhurst, nought, leg before wicket.
Ferreira and John Hall knew they had a mountain to climb and they took it slowly and carefully and they advanced the total to 43 before Richard Ellwood drew Ferreira down the track, he missed the ball and Florence stumped him for 24. That was the beginning of the end for Fleetwood for the remaining six wickets fell for 30 runs with only James Ellis putting up any stern resistance.
Wayne Clarke made one before Ellwood bowled him at 46-5 and it was 63-6 when Howarth had Hall, 23, leg before wicket. Andy Shorrocks had made four, the only other boundary of the innings to go with five from Ferreira and four from Hall, when Steve Cooper swooped at silly mid-off to catch him off Rehmani who was in the middle of a spell that ended with figures of 8-8-0-2. That was 66-7 and thereafter only Ellis looked likely to keep Fleetwood in the game as he resisted for 59 balls, the longest knock of the innings, while he made 10 not out. But wickets fell at the other end as Rehmani bowled Hague for nought and then Khan returned to wrap up the innings.
He bowled Blundell, who in fairness had also shown some fight in staying with Ellis, for nought and accounted for Hill in similar fashion in three balls. And that was that, Fleetwood all out for 73 had lost by 163 runs. To go along with Rehmani's remarkable analysis, Howarth had 3-29, Khan 3-38 and Ellwood 2-6. So with Darwen and St Annes picking up only 12 points each, Kendal leapfrogged St Annes to go into second place and edged three points closer to Darwen. With four games remaining it looks set for a fine end to an exciting season.
Second Division scores in brief (home sides in bold):
Morecambe 245-8, Blackpool 113-7 (Bullen 48)
Morecambe 10 points, Blackpool 4 points
Preston 99 (Bonner 5-24), Darwen 100-3 (Heys 56)
Preston 1 point, Darwen 12 points
Fleetwood 133 (Sherlock 90, Potts 7-24), Kendal 134-1 (Barrington 64)
Fleetwood 0 points, Kendal 12 points
Chorley 170 (Oakes 72, Speak 4-47, Gould 4-54), Lancaster 81
Lancaster 4 points, Chorley 15 points
Leyland 152 (Bretherton 82, Hartley 4-25), Netherfield 150 (Tennant 6-71)
Leyland 15 points, Netherfield 5 points
Leyland Motors 165-7 (Braithwaite 64, Thomas R 4-47), St Annes 167-3 (Kellett 72*)
Leyland Motors 3 points, St Annes 12 points
NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE
DIVISION TWO
| Club |
P |
W15 |
W12 |
D4 |
D1 |
L |
NR4 |
BP |
Pts |
| St Annes |
18 |
1 |
10 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
26 |
181 |
| Leyland Motors |
18 |
3 |
9 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
10 |
173 |
| Darwen |
18 |
2 |
8 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
26 |
170 |
| Chorley |
18 |
3 |
6 |
0 |
3 |
4 |
2 |
25 |
153 |
| Morecambe |
18 |
1 |
5 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
42 |
147 |
| Fleetwood |
18 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
6 |
1 |
30 |
146 |
| Netherfield |
18 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
10 |
1 |
39 |
117 |
| Preston |
18 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
8 |
2 |
48 |
115 |
| Lancaster |
18 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
11 |
2 |
41 |
107 |
| Kendal |
18 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
11 |
2 |
43 |
95 |
| Blackpool |
18 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
7 |
6 |
2 |
39 |
90 |
| Leyland |
18 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
12 |
1 |
25 |
84 |
