Match Day 12th June 2004
NETHERFIELD REMAIN TOP DESPITE NOT PLAYING
By Gerry Wolstenholme
In their week without a game Netherfield still held top spot as nearest rivals Preston and Fleetwood both lost and dropped down the table but wins for Darwen and Morecambe put them back in contention as they moved into second and third place respectively.
Morecambe took until the second ball of the final over before overcoming Blackpool who had batted first and made 195-6 with Steven Croft hitting 10 fours in his 87 and Tim Barry scoring 51 while Charl Langeveldt was the most successful bowler with 3-56. Morecambe had 20s from Phil Dennison, 28, Gareth Peddar, 25, and Tommy Clough, 24 not out, and with Nick Milner making 52 not out and Phil Thornton 48 with three sixes and four fours, they won by five wickets at 196-5.
Another last over victory was at Shap Road where Kendal defeated Preston who lost their last wicket, after skipper Glenn Johnstone, 23 not out, had surprisingly taken a single from the first ball of the last over, with four balls remaining. They had made 196 with Munaf Bavla's 37 being the best effort and 28 from Chris Southall, 27 from Anthony Mann and 26 from Manoj Parekh with James Rafferty taking 3-51. But their total was 71 runs short of Kendal's 267-7 to which newcomer Ahmed Elech contributed 69 not out, Ikram Ullah 59 and Kabir Khan 56 while Raouf Akbar and Parekh both took two wickets.
Darwen meanwhile scored an impressive 250-3 before declaring against Lancaster. Keith Semple made 108 with 17 fours and Neil Cordingley 51 not out with five fours and one six as the pair added 135 unbroken for the fourth wicket. Lancaster's reply relied heavily on Renier Munnik who finished with 44 not out and Luke Phillips who made 43. The best of the rest came from Ian Parkinson, 24, and Craig Heywood, 22, while Semple and Andrew Mercer both took two wickets but the bowling honours went to Jeff Hacking who returned a fine 6-36.
Leyland Motors notched their second win of the season against a Fleetwood side who throughout the season have been like the curate's egg, "good in parts". This time there were not as Motors posted 179 with Atif Ashraf once again showing his form with 104, 58% of the runs, as four batsmen failed to score. Peter Cummings made 29 and David Makinson made 27 and Doug Marillier took 4-25. Fleetwood could manage only 125 with Rob Clark's 35 being the top score and Adam Sharrocks making 23 and Michael Clinning 22 as the evergreen Sifton Prince took 4-24 and Makinson 3-20.
Over 400 runs were scored at Vernon Road but the result was never in doubt. Leyland did reasonably well to reach 211-6 but should perhaps have capitalised more from a fine position of 152-1 after Zub Patel, 58, and Moin-ul-Atiq, 122, had put on 133 runs for the second wicket. They were in the end far too many runs short of a decent target as Charles Boucher, 122 not out, and Jimmy Adams, 85 not out, took St Annes to a notable nine-wicket victory at 212-1 with the final 20 overs plus five and a half of the regulation quota unused.
The only drawn game of the day was at Barrow where visitors Chorley batted first and made 238, a fine effort after losing their first five wickets for very few. Neil Senior made 92 and Stephen John 75 as Daryl Wearing, 6-87, and Peter Lawson, 4-68, shared the wickets. Barrow then held on at 187-7 as Rawl Lewis top scored with 47 and James Riley made 39 and Ian Allington 36 while Grav Dhar took 3-16.
Scores in brief (home sides in bold):
Chorley 238 (Senior 92, John 75, Wearing 6-87, Lawson 4-68),
Barrow 187-7 (Lewis 47)
Chorley 10 points, Barrow 8 points
Kendal 267-7 (Elech 69*, Ullah 59, Khan 56), Preston 196
Kendal 15 points, Preston 6 points
Darwen 250-3 dec (Semple 108*, Cordingley 51*),
Lancaster 178 (Munnik 44*, Phillips 43, Hacking 6-36)
Darwen 15 points, Lancaster 3 points
Leyland Motors 179 (Ashraf 104, Marillier 4-28), Fleetwood 129 (Prince 4-24)
Leyland Motors 15 points, Fleetwood 4 points
Blackpool 195-6 (Croft 87, Barry 51), Morecambe196-5 (Milner 52*, Thornton 48)
Blackpool 5 points, Morecambe 12 points
Leyland 211-6 (Moin-ul-Atiq 122, Patel 58),
St Annes 212-1 (Boucher 112*, Adams 85*)
Leyland 3 points, St Annes 12 points
NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE
Division One
| Club |
P |
W15 |
W12 |
D4 |
D1 |
L |
NR4 |
BP |
Pts |
| Netherfield |
10 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
26 |
100 |
| Darwen |
10 |
2 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
12 |
98 |
| Morecambe |
10 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
12 |
94 |
| Preston |
11 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
4 |
1 |
20 |
94 |
| Fleetwood |
10 |
0 |
4 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
25 |
89 |
| Blackpool |
10 |
1 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
17 |
86 |
| Chorley |
10 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
18 |
88 |
| St Annes |
11 |
1 |
2 |
1* |
3 |
2 |
2 |
26 |
81 |
| Kendal |
10 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
4 |
0 |
21 |
69 |
| Leyland Motors |
10 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
23 |
63 |
| Lancaster |
10 |
1 |
0 |
2* |
2 |
4 |
1 |
30 |
60 |
| Barrow |
10 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
1 |
34 |
47 |
| Leyland |
10 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
7 |
1 |
24 |
30 |
* includes 5 point for a tie
Personal performance of the day in the Second Division belonged to Dominic Heys of Darwen who made a splendid 129 out of his side's 271-6 to which Michael Horsfield contributed 40. Lancaster made a spirited reply as they totalled 217 to lose by 54 runs. D Lord made 75 and Paul Dennison 61.
Fleetwood and Leyland Motors also provided a run feast as the home side declared on 256-6 with Mark Wilkinson making 74, the returning Alex Laird 73 and N Jackson 54 not out. Motors too made a fine effort at reaching their target and with Hanif Patel making 47 they reached 237 only to lose by 19 runs.
Sean Bickerdike kept up his stunning form with the bat as he made 71 not out for St Annes who beat Leyland by six wickets at 143-4 against 142. And congratulations to Kendal who won their first game of the season when they defeated Preston by three wickets. Preston made 198-4, R Dixon 71 and P McDonald 58, but thanks to K Williams' 74 not out Kendal ran out winners by three wickets at 199-7.
Blackpool goalkeeper Lewis Edge returned to his cricket roots for Morecambe and made 86 of his side's 195 against Blackpool and then Faruk Patel struck once more with 4-38 as Blackpool were bowled out for 92 to lose by 103 runs.
Finally perhaps the most bizarre statistic of the day was in the Chorley versus Barrow game. Barrow made 215-9 with J Halfpenny making 52 and Ross Demming taking 4-60 and then Barrow won their second game of the season by bowling Chorley out for 144. Mark Richardson made 36 but he was outscored by extras that made a remarkable contribution of 49!
Second Division Scores in brief (home teams in bold):
Morecambe 195 (Edge 86), Blackpool 92 (Patel 4-38)
Morecambe 15 points, Blackpool 4 points
Barrow 215-9 (Halfpenny 52, Demming 4-60), Chorley 144
Barrow 15 points, Chorley 5 points
Darwen 271-6 (Heys 129, Horsfield 40),
Lancaster 217 (Lord 75, Dennison 61, Bonner 4-31)
Darwen 15 points, Lancaster 5 points
Fleetwood 256-6 dec (Wilkinson M 74, Laird 73, Jackson 54*),
Leyland Motors 237 (Patel H 47)
Fleetwood 15 points, Leyland Motors 5 points
Leyland 142 (Bretherton 56), St Annes 143-4 (Bickerdike 71*)
Leyland 2 points, St Annes 12 points
Preston 198-4 (Dixon 71, McDonald 58), Kendal 199-7 (Williams 74*)
Preston 6 points, Kendal 12 points
NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE
Division Two
| Club |
P |
W15 |
W12 |
D4 |
D1 |
L |
NR4 |
BP |
Pts |
| St Annes |
11 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
11 |
113 |
| Chorley |
10 |
3 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
7 |
112 |
| Morecambe |
10 |
1 |
5 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
18 |
106 |
| Darwen |
10 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
17 |
96 |
| Fleetwood |
10 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
21 |
81 |
| Barrow |
10 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
29 |
75 |
| Netherfield |
10 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
32 |
70 |
| Blackpool |
10 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
27 |
61 |
| Leyland Motors |
10 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
5 |
1 |
25 |
58 |
| Lancaster |
10 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
5 |
1 |
22 |
55 |
| Leyland |
10 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
5 |
1 |
34 |
51 |
| Preston |
11 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
6 |
0 |
23 |
45 |
| Kendal |
10 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
6 |
1 |
21 |
42 |
ACTION REPLAY:
ST ANNES AT A CANTER
Leyland 211-6, St Annes 212-1
By Gerry Wolstenholme
When 423 runs have been scored in an afternoon's cricket it may seem rather odd to say that the game was one-sided but that is all that can be said for the match between St Annes and Leyland at Vernon Road on Saturday. St Annes won the toss, asked Leyland to bat and then saw the visitors make a determined batting effort to reach 211-6 from their 57 overs. It was not a commanding total on a pitch that provided nothing for the bowlers and gave every assistance to the batsmen but it was one that perhaps could have been defended to some degree. That it wasn't was due to the paucity of the Leyland bowling who, after one early strike, never looked remotely like separating the two St Annes batsmen that took their side to 212-1 and victory by nine wickets with 25 overs and three balls of the contest remaining.
When Leyland opened, they played out a couple of maiden overs before opening their account that had only reached 19 when the first wicket was lost. That was skipper Alex Mercer who Richard Thomas trapped leg before wicket for 13 when the total was 19-1. Thereafter professional Moin-ul-Atiq and Zub Patel looked at ease as they put on 133 runs in just over two hours. Atiq escaped when he had 60 when Steve Twist at mid-wicket dived to take a catch that he spilled as he hit the ground but other than that there were few alarms.
Atiq was particularly strong on his legs with the sweep shot playing an important part in his run-scoring. When he had made 58 from 116 balls with eight fours Patel advanced down the track to Adam Cotton and Duncan Whalley stumped him and it was 152-2. From there on Leyland should have accelerated away but they did not do so as Steve Pallett was caught and bowled by Adams without scoring at 155-3 and Twist bowled Charlie Williams for seven at 193-4. By that time Atiq had reached his century but failed to capitalise on it to the degree that he should have done as he continually took singles and left the bowling to his partners. One of them, Andrew Jolly, was bowled by Twist for one and the other, Shaun Dunk, was four not out when the innings closed.
The final ball dismissed Atiq who, instead of going for the expansive drive for a boundary off Adams, tried to run him down to third man for a single and he was bowled for 122 made from 156 balls with 14 fours in 197 minutes. So Leyland closed on 211-6, probably 50 or 60 runs less than they had promised earlier in their innings. Twist with 2-21 was the most successful bowler but Thomas was the star with 1-32 from 18 immaculate overs.
When St Annes replied, Danny Hagen had a let-off when he had made two when Atiq dropped a straightforward chance in the gully off Pallett that realised a single to the batsman. He then did not add to his three for, having not learnt from his previous misdemeanour, he played the same shot off Vohra Shirag and this time Atiq held on in the gully and it was 16-1.
That was the end of the Leyland success however for a most inept display of bowling coupled with some rather poor field placing cost them dearly as Charles Boucher and Jimmy Adams simply picked off the runs at will. Early on Adams was content to let Boucher take the lead and the latter showed why he had last season broken the Second Division batting record for St Annes. He reeled off some glorious shots all round the field and when Adams joined in the fun, it was mayhem for the Leyland bowlers and fielders.
The pair did not once look troubled and in just over an hour and a half they put on 196 elegant runs and the game was over with 25.3 overs unused as St Annes cruised to 212-1 to win by nine wickets. Boucher made a cultured, accomplished century, and he may never make an easier one, and he finished with 112 not out from 96 balls with 16 fours in 107 minutes. Adams, looking every inch a former West Indies Test captain, batted in his usual calm, disciplined way and he finished with 85 not out from 58 balls with 12 fours in 91 minutes. The only Leyland bowling success was Shirag whose one wicket cost him 32 runs from five overs and there was not one maiden over bowled in the innings.
The only thing Leyland could perhaps be be thankful for was that St Annes invited them to bat. Albeit the game could have taken a different course but if it had not done so, heaven only knows what St Annes would have finished on!
