Match Day 30th August- 2003 IT'S DARWEN'S TITLE By Gerry Wolstenholme Darwen clinched the Northern Premier League title for the second consecutive season by dint of victory over second-placed St Annes at Vernon Road on Saturday. With defeats for Netherfield and Kendal, St Annes will finish as runners-up with the two Cumbrian sides fighting it out on the last weekend for third place. Darwen were put in to bat and despite the loss of an early wicket they made an impressive 238-3 with Gareth Cordingley leading the way with 74 not out, Mark Hadfield contributing 52 and Keith Semple 39. St Annes fought hard to achieve victory but they failed in the end by 11 runs when they were bowled out for 227 with one over remaining. On his way to breaking the St Annes club run aggregate record for an amateur, Gareth Evans made an excellent 72 while Steve Twist made 45. Semple made it a good all-round day with 4-59. Netherfield meanwhile suffered an unexpected defeat at the hands of Leyland Motors who bowled their visitors out for just 131 to which Pieter Strydom contributed 45 and Graeme Dodds, 20, was the only other batsman to get past the teens. Richard Rounding took 4-26 and Iqbal Liley 3-29 for Motors. Hanif Patel, 43, and Atif Ashraf with 42 not out and James Aspinwall with 29 not out saw their side home by seven wickets at 135-3. Kendal also lost by 90 runs to Lancaster where Brendon Hetherington showed his worth with the bat again and made 63 while Luke Phillips and Iain Parkinson both made 22, which, despite Kabir Khan's 4-73, helped their side to 191-7. Graham Barnes, 5-30, and Ben Simm, 4-31, then bowled Kendal out for just 101 with Khan, batting at number nine making a top score of 34 not out and Dave Fallows making 25 which did not leave many for the other nine. Just to get into some sort of run scoring form for the thwaites Smooth Beer Cup Final, Morecambe broke the Northern Premier League record with a massive total of 316-4. Phil Dennison made another century, this time 104 with 13 fours, Ramesh Powar made 79, with 14 fours, and Mark Woodhead 43. Nigel Heaton managed to retain some respectability among the bowlers with 3-61 but Stephen John went for 96 runs in 15 overs, none of which were maidens. But Chorley were never really out of it in the early stages and with 20 overs remaining they were just over 200 with five wickets left. But the mountain was too high to climb and they finished on a very creditable 251-8. John made 71 and Michael Critchley and Neil Senior both made 41, the latter not out. Preston achieved their eighth win of a successful season when they defeated the topsy-turvy Fleetwood side. Batting first Preston made 156 with Pervez Shah making 62 and Steve Hill taking 4-40 for Fleetwood. Raouf Akbar then had his best day of 2003 with a return of 8-60 that bowled Fleetwood out for 116 that meant defeat by 40 runs. Adam Shorrocks made a top score of 38 while 12each from Lloyd Ferreira and Zac Taylor were the next best efforts. And at Stanley Park another record was broken as Deon Kruis, a season's best of 75, and Mark Lomas, 80 not out, put on 147 for Blackpool's fifth wicket that broke a long-standing record of 111. The pair were instrumental in Blackpool making 212-6 before declaring. However Leyland made a brave effort to reach their target and fell only 22 short of victory at 191-7. Alex Mercer made 73 and Steve Pallett, 20 not out, and Ian Farrington, five not out, kept Blackpool at bay. Kruis kept up his recent good form with the ball, taking 4-65. Another record was broken in Division Two where Danny Welbourne's 89 not out gave him the record aggregate for Netherfield in Division Two cricket, taking the mantle from Ian Heath who scored 747 in 1991. And it also set a new record for all clubs in the Division, surpassing Lancaster's Jim Hetherington's 800 in 1981. Finally congratulations to the St Annes second eleven who have won the Division Two title for the first time in the club's history, their runners-up spots in 1966 and 1997 can now be confined to history! And the club will be competing for a double next Sunday when they contest the final of the Division Two Smooth Beer Cup competition at Morecambe. Results in brief (home teams in bold): Blackpool 212-6 dec (Lomas 80*, Kruis 75), Leyland 191-7 (Mercer 73, Kruis 4-65) Blackpool 10 points, Leyland 6 points Lancaster 191-7 (Hetherington 63, Khan 4-73), Kendal 101 (Barnes 5-30, Simm 4-31) Lancaster 15 points, Kendal 3 points Netherfield 131 (Strydom 45, Rounding 4-26),Leyland Motors 135-3 (Patel 43, Ashraf 42*) Netherfield 1 point, Leyland Motors 12 points Morecambe 316-4 (Dennison 104, Powar 79, Woodhead 43), Chorley 251-8 (John 71, Senior 41*, Critchley 41) Preston 156 (Shah 62, Hill 4-40), Fleetwood 116 (Akbar 8-60) Preston 15 points, Fleetwood 4 points Darwen 238-3 (Cordingley G 74*, Hadfield 52), St Annes 227 (Evans 72, Twist 45, Semple 4-59) Darwen 15 points, St Annes 4 points NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE DIVISION ONE Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Darwen 21 4 9 2 1 2 3 22 211 St Annes 21 1 10 3 2 2 3 33 194 Netherfield 21 3 6 3 2 4 3 34 177 Kendal 21 7 1 1 3 6 3 41 177 Morecambe 21 3 7 1 2 6 2 31 174 Preston 21 6 2 1 0 10 2 37 163 Chorley 21 1 5 4 2 6 3 51 156 Lancaster 21 3 3 2 5 6 2 45 147 Leyland Motors 21 3 1 2 2 12 1 55 126 Fleetwood 21 0 5 1 3 11 1 54 125 Leyland 21 4 0 2 1 11 3 43 124 Blackpool 21 0 3 3 2 11 2 58 116 ACTION REPLAY; DARWEN SHOW THEIR METTLE ... AND CLINCH THE TITLE Darwen 238-3, St Annes 227 By Gerry Wolstenholme Darwen showed that they were worthy titleholders and winners once again at Vernon Road on Saturday when they defeated St Annes by 11 runs. They posted a reasonable, but still gettable 238-3, and with 20 overs remaining they looked as though they were going to lose it as St Annes were in control at 144-2. But then St Annes pressed the self-destruct button, Darwen sensed and grasped their opportunity and with one over remaining it was all over as St Annes were bowled out for 227. Gary Jackson, who, while scoring prolifically elsewhere, has had a miserable time on the Fylde Coast this summer, was dismissed without scoring when Darwen were put in to bat. He edged Roger Banks to second slip where Geoff Love pouched the catch and that was 8-1. Mark Hadfield and Keith Semple then found it hard going against a steady attack and some good fielding but they eventually released the shackles and started to move the score along more quickly. Semple was just starting to put his foot on the gas when he swung Love to deep backward square leg where Adam Cotton held onto the catch and he was gone for 39 at 138-3. Hadfield, becalmed through the 30s, moved on to 52, from 115 balls with five fours and one six, before he went in similar fashion to Semple when he pulled Michael Baer to deep backward square leg and Adrian Darlington took a low tumbling catch to leave Darwen 138-3. But that was the last of the St Annes success as Gareth Cordingley, who in contrast to Jackson, has had a splendid season on the Fylde Coast, and Chris Lowe pushed the score along with the aid of the return of the St Annes pace attack. The final six overs brought 59 runs and Darwen closed on 238-3 with Gareth Cordingley 74 not out, made from 67 balls with six fours and two sixes, and Chris Lowe 35 not out. St Annes began their reply well and had advanced to 42 before Darlington, 18, failed to go through with his shot and sent a simple catch to Hadfield at mid-on off Andrew Mercer. Gareth Evans and Steve Twist then continued apace and it was something of a surprise when the latter, on 45 made from55 balls with eight fours, was splendidly caught by a diving Gareth Cordingley at mid-wicket off the leg spin of Jeff Hacking. But with Evans, past the St Annes amateur run aggregate record for a season, and Love in control, it seemed at the drinks break with St Annes 144-2 as if it were just a matter of how many overs would remain when St Annes won. But Darwen are nothing if not resilient and very soon after the resumption they had taken four St Annes wickets for the addition of only 20 runs. Evans, 72 from 115 balls with seven fours and one six, drove Hacking to a widish long-on where Semple seemed at first to have misjudged the catch only to calmly take it over his head and that was 150-3. Love, who had been a little tied down, fell leg before to Semple for nine at 151-4, Duncan Whalley made five before he holed out to Stuart Grant at long-off from the Hacking leg spin, 157-5, and Adam Cotton, three, was caught by Lowe at mid-wicket off Semple. The middle order had suddenly gone and St Annes were struggling at 164-6. Russ Bradley, 27, and David Bartholomew, 25, then tried to pull things round and were doing a good job when the former was leg before wicket to Mercer and it was 206-7. Semple comprehensively bowled Bartholomew at 214-8, Dave Taylor, five, went likewise to Mercer and all hope disappeared when Semple bowled Banks with the last ball of the penultimate over. Baer was left on three not out and St Annes at 227 all out had lost by 11 runs with Semple taking 4-59, Mercer 3-62 and Hacking 3-69. Darwen were deserved champions and St Annes, after an excellent season, had to settle for the runners-up spot. The last weekend's games next Saturday for the leading two clubs will therefore not have the spice that could have been but there is still a fight on for third place with Kendal, Netherfield and Morecambe all in contention. Second division scores in brief (home teams in bold): Morecambe 108 (Maje 42), Chorley 109-4 (Oakes 51) Morecambe 1 point, Chorley 12 points Darwen 103 (Connolly 5-16), St Annes 106-9 (Bradley 41*, Grant M 4-7) Darwen 4 points, St Annes 12 points Preston 141 (Gregson 4-14), Fleetwood 76 (Wright 6-26) Preston 15 points, Fleetwood 4 points Lancaster 182-2 (Heywood C 101, Heywood J 53*), Kendal 129 (Fearnyhough 41) Lancaster 15 points, Kendal 0 points Leyland 136 (Pascal 69, Armstrong 5-25), Blackpool 139-5 (Horton 58) Leyland 2 points, Blackpool 12 points Netherfield 198-4 (Welbourne 89*), Leyland Motors 105 (Cottam 41, Hartley 5-28) Netherfield 15 points, Leyland Motors 1 point NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE DIVISION TWO Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts St Annes 21 2 12 3 0 2 2 26 220 Darwen 21 3 8 3 2 4 1 34 193 Chorley 21 4 8 0 3 4 2 25 192 Leyland Motors 21 3 10 0 2 4 2 15 190 Morecambe 21 2 5 5 2 5 2 47 167 Fleetwood 21 5 2 4 1 8 1 42 162 Netherfield 21 5 3 1 1 10 1 39 159 Lancaster 21 3 3 1 0 12 2 42 135 Preston 21 3 1 4 1 10 2 53 135 Blackpool 21 0 4 0 8 7 2 46 110 Leyland 21 3 2 0 1 14 1 28 102 Kendal 21 1 2 1 1 14 2 46 98

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