Match Day 31st May 2003 IT'S TIGHT AT THE TOP - FIVE POINTS SEPARATE THE LEADING FOUR By Gerry Wolstenholme Wins for Darwen, Morecambe and Kendal plus defeat for Preston means that there are only five points now separating the top four teams and even Netherfield in seventh spot are only 15 points away from the leaders. Darwen bounced back to the top courtesy of an easy victory over previous leaders Preston who batted first and made a modest 117. Pervez Shah scored 51 and of the rest, only Ian McDonnell and Manoj Parekh, who both made 16, reached double figures. Keith Semple took the bowling honours with 5-30 and Andrew Mercer had 3-27. Mark Hadfield, lately scoring runs in the second team, relished his first team recall and made 63 of Darwen's reply of 118-3 that gave them a seven-wicket victory. Morecambe kept the pressure on their east Lancashire rivals with a convincing victory at Blackpool where the home side made heavy weather of scoring 174-3 despite a Northern Premier League best of 71 not out from Steve Croft and 52 from Mark Lomas. Morecambe's reply got off to a rapid start and with Mark Woodhead leading the way with 73 they did not need any of the final 20 overs to reach 178-4 and victory by six wickets. Kendal meanwhile crept quietly up the table as, for the second successive game they found that an all-out total of 116 was enough to win the game. Martin South, 29, and Steve Cooper, 22, gave them a good start but of the rest, Chris Florence's 17 was the best. Fleetwood's Zac Taylor was the bowling star in restricting Kendal as he took an NPL best of 6-32 but this magnificent effort was wasted as Fleetwood fell for 99 with Kabir Khan taking 6-38. Fleetwood's Taylor, a top score of 25, and James Ellis, 14, had swung the pendulum back their way with a partnership of 39 when a seemingly controversial umpiring decision cost the former his wicket. Thereafter Fleetwood's remaining three wickets went down for just one run. Netherfield got back to winning ways against hapless Leyland as they declared their innings at 203-7 with Pieter Strydom top scoring with 74 and Gareth White and Tommy Prime making 28 each. Leyland professional Luxman Vahalawala took 4-55 and led the attack in place of supposedly retiring skipper Brian Tennant. Marc Hadwin, 4-15, Ryan Wilson, 3-13, and Strydom, 2-15, were then instrumental in dismissing Leyland for just 72 thus losing by a massive 131 runs. Six hundred and sixty four runs were scored at Lune Road as Lancaster and Chorley fought out a high scoring draw. Chorley made 239-6 with forties from Stephen John, 49 not out, Jim Fazackerley, 47, and Nigel Heaton, 42. Lancaster replied in kind and David Heywood with his ninth Northern League century stretching back to 1989 and Renier Munnik, 48, saw Lancaster to a draw at 225-9.The other game was also drawn as St Annes failed to bowl out Leyland Motors at Vernon Road. Gareth Evans gave St Annes a good start with 55 and they closed on 185-6 with 34 from Steve Twist and 20s from Adrian Darlington, Geoff Love and Duncan Whalley. Asif Ashraf made a bold effort for Motors and scored 56 but no other batsman had the answer to Geoff Love whose 5-30 was a valiant effort to win the game. But Motors, who shut up shop after the professional was dismissed, held on at 116-7 to secure a draw. Scores in brief (home team in bold): Blackpool 174-3 (Croft 71*, Lomas 52), Morecambe 178-4 (Woodhead 73) Blackpool 3 points, Morecambe 12 points Preston 117 (Shah 51, Semple 5-30), Darwen 118-3 (Hadfield 63) Preston 1 point, Darwen 12 points Kendal 116 (Taylor 6-32), Fleetwood 99 (Khan 6-38) Kendal 15 points, Fleetwood 4 points Chorley 239-6 (John 49*, Fazackerley 47, Heaton 42), Lancaster 225-9 (Heywood 100, Munnik 48) Chorley 11 points, Lancaster 6 points Netherfield 203-7 dec (Strydom 74, Vahalawala 4-55), Leyland 72 (Hadwin 4-15) Netherfield 15 points, Leyland 3 points St Annes 185-6 (Evans 55), Leyland Motors 116-7 (Ashraf 56, Love 5-30) St Annes 10 points, Leyland Motors 3 points NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE DIVISION ONE Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Darwen 8 2 2 0 0 1 3 2 68 Morecambe 8 1 3 0 1 1 2 4 64 Preston 8 2 1 1 0 3 1 14 64 Kendal 8 3 0 0 0 2 3 6 63 Chorley 8 0 2 2 0 2 2 19 59 St Annes 8 0 1 2 2 0 3 20 54 Netherfield 8 1 1 1 1 1 3 9 53 Fleetwood 8 0 3 0 1 3 1 9 50 Leyland Motors 8 2 0 0 1 4 1 12 47 Lancaster 8 0 1 1 2 2 2 21 47 Blackpool 8 0 1 1 0 4 2 12 36 Leyland 8 1 0 0 0 4 3 8 35 ACTION REPLAY: MORECAMBE STROLL TO VICTORY By Gerry Wolstenholme On a track not conducive to wicket taking and more in accordance with run scoring, Blackpool failed to take full advantage and, scoring only 174-3 in their 57 overs, lost by six wickets to Morecambe who replied with 178-4 without even getting to the final 20 overs. It was a disastrous start for the home side as Chris Barrow was bowled by Peter Stephens for nought in the first over and then when Chris Simcock fell leg before wicket for seven to Faruk Patel, Blackpool were in trouble at 12-2. But that was the end of Morecambe's success for some time as Steven Croft, fresh from his Lancashire second eleven game, and Mark Lomas put on 102 runs. They were not scored quickly however as the Morecambe bowlers kept a tight line and length with Stephens bowling 16 overs for only 32 runs and later Andy Bird having only 37 taken from 11 overs. Professional Ramesh Powar was the most expensive bowler and the two batsmen punished some of his floaters. It was Bird who eventually broke through when he bowled Lomas whose 52 had come from 122 balls with four fours. Professional Deon Kruis then came in and with a quick-fire 36 from 34 balls with one six and three fours he helped take the final total to 174-3 with Croft's 71 not out coming from 171 balls with six fours. On the feather bed track it never seemed likely to be enough to win the game and so it proved as Mark Woodhead and Phil Dennison got Morecambe off to a cricking start with 66 on the board inside 10 overs. Dennison then went for one shot too many off Kruis and Dave Higham at gully took a tumbling catch. And it was Higham who was the only man who seemed likely to put the brake on the Morecambe batsmen as he reeled off a splendid 15-over spell that earned him 3-28. Sadly there was nothing at the other end to support him as Kruis did not bowl at his best and was consequently punished to the tune of 1-99 from 14 overs. Powar joined Woodhead but he did not look happy in his time at the crease and it came as no surprise when Higham bowled him for six and Morecambe were 90-2. Gareth Pedder then enjoyed the lack of a third-man and scored freely in that area before, with 19 to his name, he too was bowled by Higham at 127-3. Woodhead went on to a hard-hit 73 made from 95 balls with eight fours before he gave Higham the charge only to miss and be stumped by Martin Hackett. Phil Thornton's arrival at the crease usually spells fireworks but he seemed to be playing for a nought not out as he allowed Tom Clough to do the bulk of the scoring. Clough obliged and scored a run-a-ball 27 with six fours before the slumbering Thornton took a two to get off the mark. He then blasted two successive fours off Kruis and the game was over without recourse to the final 20 overs, Morecambe's 178-4 coming from only 38 overs. Second Division scores in brief (home team in bold): Lancaster 168 (Derham 56, Dixon 4-41), Chorley 169-6 (Dixon 49, Hotham 47, Catterall J 42) Lancaster 4 points, Chorley 12 points Kendal 162-6 (Ashburner 59), Fleetwood 128-8 (Buschini 42, Dugdale 5-49) Kendal 9 points, Fleetwood 3 points St Annes 204-6 (Taylor A 61, Ashworth 56), Leyland Motors 158-8 (Baldwin 6-35) St Annes 10 points, Leyland Motors 4 points Blackpool 152-9 (Taylor 47), Morecambe 156-8 (Marsland 4-39) Blackpool 4 points, Morecambe 12 points Netherfield 266-3 (Welbourne 95, Hampshire 63), Leyland 83 Netherfield 15 points, Leyland 1 point Preston 145-7 (Bonner 5-20), Darwen 146-6 (Bonner 54*) Preston 3 points, Darwen 12 points NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE DIVISION TWO Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Darwen 8 2 4 0 1 0 1 2 85 Leyland Motors 8 2 3 0 1 0 2 3 78 St Annes 8 1 1 3 0 1 2 22 69 Chorley 8 0 4 0 0 2 2 8 64 Morecambe 8 0 3 1 1 1 2 8 57 Netherfield 8 2 1 0 0 4 1 7 53 Fleetwood 7 2 1 0 1 2 1 5 52 Preston 8 1 0 2 1 2 2 17 49 Leyland 8 0 2 0 0 5 1 9 37 Kendal 8 0 0 1 1 4 2 20 33 Blackpool 7 0 1 0 1 3 2 10 31 Lancaster 8 0 0 0 0 6 2 16 24

Click Here to send your comments.