Match Day 24th May 2003 PRESTON GO BACK TO THE TOP By Gerry Wolstenholme Picking up 15 points for their victory over Kendal, Preston moved back to the top of the table while Morecambe, with an emphatic win over Darwen, showed their intentions and settled in second place, just one point behind the leaders. Preston batted first against Kendal and scored 155-9 with Oliver Clayson making a top score of 41 and Munaf Bavla contributing 35. For Kendal Kabir Khan took 4-42 and Richard Ellwood 4-44. The Preston total proved to be 17 runs too many for the sometimes brittle Kendal batting and they were all out for 138 Raouf Akbar taking 5-44. Only Khan, 34, and Ellwood, a late order 26 not out, made any headway against the tidy Preston bowling. Morecambe meanwhile racked up a massive 240-4 with Phil Thornton leading the way with 76 not out, Mark Woodhead making 46, Ramesh Powar 36, Tommy Clough 35 and Phil Dennison keeping his good form going with 34. Gareth Cordingley did his best to slow the scoring rate down with, in the circumstances, an impressive 4-43 as Andrew Mercer suffered to the tune of 0-90, Keith Semple 0-53 and Jeff Hacking 0-51. Darwen's reply faltered from the start and although Gary Jackson fought well for 45, Ramesh Powar with 5-39 and Andy bird 3-12 were instrumental in bowling them out for 145 and inflicting their first defeat for quite some time. Deon Kruis was the Blackpool star at Leyland Motors as he ran through the Motors batting with a best so far of 8-47, after only one wicket in his first spell. Only Asif Ashraf with 61 showed much resistance as the home side were dismissed for 132 with Kruis adding two catches to his eight wickets. Steven Croft led the way in the Blackpool innings as he made 58 not out and Chris Barrow made 36 to give Blackpool a six-wicket win at 133-4. At Fleetwood the home side achieved their second victory against a lack-lustre Lancaster side who were bowled out for just 87 with the wickets shared round. Fleetwood completed the formalities just after six o'clock with 88-3 and a seven-wicket victory. There was no play at Chorley where Leyland were the visitors and at Netherfield where St Annes had travelled. Scores in brief(home teams in bold): Chorley v Leyland - no play, match abandoned both sides four points Lancaster 87, Fleetwood 88-3 Lancaster 1 point, Fleetwood 12 points Leyland Motors 132 (Ashraf 61, Kruis 8-47), Blackpool 133-4 (Croft 58*) Leyland Motors 1 point, Blackpool 12 points Morecambe 240-4 (Thornton 76*, Woodhead 46, Cordingley G 4-43), Darwen 145 (Jackson 45, Powar 5-39) Morecambe 15 points, Darwen 2 points Netherfield v St Annes - no play, match abandoned both sides four points Preston155-9 (Clayson 41, Khan 4-42, Ellwood 4-44), Kendal 138 (Akbar 5-44) Preston 15 points, Kendal 4 points NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Preston 6 2 1 0 0 2 1 7 53 Morecambe 6 1 2 0 1 0 2 4 52 Chorley 6 0 2 1 0 1 2 9 45 Darwen 6 1 1 0 0 1 3 2 41 St Annes 6 0 1 1 1 0 3 9 38 Fleetwood 6 0 2 0 1 2 1 5 34 Netherfield 6 0 1 1 1 0 3 5 34 Balckpool 6 0 1 1 0 2 2 9 33 Kendal 6 1 0 0 0 2 3 6 33 Leyland 6 1 0 0 0 2 3 2 29 Leyland Motors 6 1 0 0 0 4 1 10 29 Lancaster 6 0 0 1 1 2 2 16 29 HEYWOOD PASSES 10,000 RUNS BUT LANCASTER BEATEN AT FLEETWOOD Lancaster 87, Fleetwood 88-3 By Gerry Wolstenholme David Heywood passed a personal milestone at Broadwater on Saturday but he would probably have sacrificed that for a victory for his side. When he reached eight he passed 10,000 runs in the Northern League but his side went on to total only 87 all out. Fleetwood lost three wickets in their reply but at 88-3 they were comfortable seven-wicket victors by just after six o'clock. Lancaster were put in to bat and began badly as Dave Fish's direct hit ran out the talented Danny Hagan for five when he and Ian Burstow were hesitating over a single. That was 8-1 and when John Wright at short leg splendidly caught Burstow for nine, Lancaster were 14-2. That became 14-3 the very next ball when Renier Munnik was adjudged caught behind by James Ellis off Steve Hill and then it was David Heywood's turn to write his name into the history books. After he had reached eight he had made 10,000 Northern League runs but he only increased that to 10,003 before he drove a return catch to Paul Hague who held on to the low chance and that was 26-4. Luke Phillips and Ian Parkinson added 23 for the fifth wicket before the former was caught by Hill off Hague for 10. Hague then produced the best ball of the day to bowl Lee Sparks, who himself had played the stroke of the day with an exquisite cover drive. He went for just the four and Lancaster were in deep trouble at 54-6 . Parkinson and young Craig Heywood then showed some stern resistance and it took numerous bowling changes before the partnership was broken. Zac Taylor was brought into the attack and he had Heywood caught by Lloyd Ferreira, who had bowled a short ineffective spell, for three and it was 80-7. Parkinson, a top score of 29, went without addition to the total when Michael Clinning induced a return catch. Paul Dennison essayed a variety of shots without success and he had made only four when Taylor bowled him neck and crop at 84-9. Graham Barnes made two before Clinning bowled him and with Chris Glover not out one, Lancaster's short innings was over at 87. Hill had 2-17, Hague an excellent 3-23, Clinning 2-9 and Taylor 2-4. Fleetwood's reply had reached 23 when Wright, having survived one slightly rash shot at Glover, failed in another and was bowled for 13. Dewhurst was his usual steady self and accumulated runs while Ferreira struck out. He had reached 27 when he charged Dennison and was leg before wicket with the Fleetwood total 78-2. Clinning came and went for four as he returned a gentle catch to Glover and that allowed John Whalley to nudge the single that took Fleetwood to a very comfortable seven-wicket victory. Dewhurst remained 32 not out made from 117 balls with three fours. And Fleetwood's 12 points took them back to mid-table while Lancaster fell to the bottom. Second Division scores in brief (home teams in bold): Leyland Motors 117, Blackpool 90 Leyland Motors 15 points, Blackpool 4 points Morecambe 119-6 (Gudgeon 46*), Darwen 78-6 Morecambe 6 points, Darwen 3 points Preston 169-8 (Southall 79*), Kendal 67-9 Preston 10 points, Kendal 4 point Fleetwood 211-4 (Clarke W 63), Lancaster 90 (Sherlock 4-17) Fleetwood 15 points, Lancaster 1 point Leyland 56, Chorley 60-7 Leyland 3 points, Chorley 12 points Netherfield 138-6 (Bartholomew 4-41), St Annes 141-3 (Boucher 48) Netherfield 1 point, St Annes 12 points NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE SECOND DIVISION TABLE Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Leyland Motors 6 2 2 0 0 0 2 0 62 Darwen 6 1 3 0 1 0 1 2 58 St Annes 6 1 1 1 0 1 2 11 50 Fleetwood 6 2 1 0 0 2 1 3 49 Chorley 6 0 3 0 0 1 2 4 48 Preston 6 1 0 2 0 1 2 12 43 Leyland 6 0 2 0 0 3 1 7 35 Morecambe 6 0 1 1 1 1 2 8 33 Blackpool 6 0 1 0 1 2 2 6 27 Netherfield 6 0 1 0 0 4 1 7 23 Kendal 6 0 0 0 1 3 2 11 20 Lancaster 6 0 0 0 0 4 2 11 19

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