Match Day 26th April 2003 RAIN RUINED WEEKEND - BUT NOT FOR CHORLEY AND MORECAMBE By Gerry Wolstenholme Rain severely curtailed the Northern Premier League programme on the second weekend of the season. Chorley, with victory over Leyland Motors, and Morecambe, defeating Preston, were the only two sides to gain winning points as the other games ended either as a rain interrupted draw or as no contests. Leyland Motors batter at Chorley and in between showers were bowled out for a meagre 84 with top scorers being Rounding and Iqbal Lilley with 17 each and for Chorley professional Stephen John taking 6-28. Chorley had no difficulty in overtaking that score and Tom Smith carried on his good form from the previous week with 37 not out and his partner Ian Mawdesley made 40 not out as Chorley won by 10 wickets with 86-0. Preston batted first at Woodhill Lane and made 166 with Peter Stephens back to his best with 5-77 and Gulam Maje, thankfully getting longer bowling spells, taking 4-29. Munaf Bavla made a top score of 59 for Preston with skipper Glenn Johnstone's 18 being next best. Mark Woodhead, in form again with 49, and Phil Dennison, 84 not out, set the visitors off well with an opening stand in the nineties and they quickly reached 168-3 and victory by seven wickets, despite interruptions from the weather. The Netherfield versus Fleetwood game ended in a draw as Pieter Strydom, with 68 from 101 balls with one six and four fours, led Netherfield to 115-6 from 44.3 overs as Dave Fish took 3-45. Fleetwood's brave reply in a chase for victory ended at 105-6 from only 21 overs. John Wright made 45 and Zac Taylor, 15 not out, and Bobby Denning, 11 not out, took their side within sight of an unexpected win. Stuart Nixon took 4-38 for Netherfield. The other three games ended with no result as rain forced the games to be abandoned. At Stanley Park Blackpool had made 94-5 against Kendal, Chris Barrow just getting into his stride with 28 not out before the second rain interruption proved to be too heavy and continuous. At Lancaster Renier Munnik carried on his good form with 59 not out, including three sixes and two fours, and Ian Parkinson contributed 54 as Lancaster made 145-6 before the rain halted proceedings. And at Leyland, Darwen were desperately unlucky not to benefit from having bowled Leyland out for just 65. Andrew Mercer, last season's leading wicket-taker, returned to form with 5-25 and Jeff Hacking chipped in with his usual haul, 4-21. Only Adrian Walsh, 18, and last man Julian Edwards, 10, reached double figures for Leyland. Darwen had advanced to 17-1 before rain caused the game to be abandoned. Scores in brief (home team in bold): Blackpool 94-5 v Kendal: rain stopped play - match abandoned Blackpool 4 points, Kendal 4 points Leyland Motors 84 (John 6-28), Chorley 86-0 (Mawdsley 40*, Smith T 37*) Leyland Motors 0 points, Chorley 12 points Lancaster 145-6 (Munnik 59*, Parkinson 54) v St Annes: rain stopped play - match abandoned Lancaster 4 points, St Annes 4 points Leyland 65 (Mercer 5-25, Hacking 4-21), Darwen 17-1: rain stopped play - match abandoned Leyland 4 points, Darwen 4 points Preston 166 (Bavla 59, Stephens 5-77, Maje 4-29), Morecambe 168-3 (Dennison 84*, Woodhead 49) Preston 3 points, Morecambe 12 points Netherfield115-6 (Strydom 68), Fleetwood 105-6 (Wright 45, Nixon 4-38) Netherfield 6 points, Fleetwood 3 points Second Division Scores in brief (home team in bold): Leyland 92, Darwen 94-0 (Painter 43*, Emery 42*) Leyland 0 points, Darwen 12 points Netherfield 167-4 (Welbourne 56, Stewart 45), Fleetwood 173-6 (Clarke W 42, Sharrocks 43*, Hartley 5-49) Netherfield 4 points, Fleetwood 12 points Kendal 134-9 (Cresswell 4-42) v Blackpool: rain stopped play - match abandoned Kendal 4 points, Blackpool 4 points Chorley 85 (Totham 5-14, Cottam 4-29), Leyland Motors 51-3: rain stopped play -match abandoned Chorley 4 points, Leyland Motors 4 points Morecambe 134-6 (Izzat 49*), Preston 16-0: rain stopped play - match abandoned Morecambe 4 points, Preston 4 points Lancaster 103-4 v St Annes: rain stopped play - match abandoned Lancaster 4 points, St Annes 4 points ACTION REPLAY RAIN HALTS KENDAL PROGRESS Blackpool 94-5 v Kendal - rain stopped play By Gerry Wolstenholme The dreadful weather on cricketing weekends continued at Stanley Park on Saturday for, even as the teams took the field, threatening clouds were gathering and it looked doubtful whether the game would run its full course Blackpool won the toss, elected to bat and had reached eight before the first wicket fell. Chris Simcock was beaten by a ball from Kevin Howarth and was leg before wicket for one. Steven Croft made nine before he drove a ball back to Kendal professional Kabir Khan who held a good one-handed catch low down to his left and that was 29-2. Deon Kruis made eight before he fell to the wily Richard Ellwood who had him caught at mid-on by Steve Cooper and Blackpool were 47-3. One run later and Martin Pickles, who had looked in good form, was smartly stumped by Chris Florence off Ellwood and Blackpool were on the rack. Skipper Mark Lomas made 14 before Howarth, returning from the south end, beat his downward stroke to rearrange his stumps and Blackpool were a perilous 90-5. The total had advanced thanks to some brave hitting from Chris Barrow who was particularly severe on Ellwood, driving him straight for one superb six and taking three fours off another over. However he did have his strokes of good fortune for, inexplicably, he was dropped by the usually safe hands of Terry Hunte off Howarth and then he escaped again when Cooper put down a straightforward chance off Ellwood. But it was all academic as the second stoppage for rain proved too much and the game was abandoned with both sides taking four points.

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