Match Day 17th July 2004
NETHERFIELD AND FLEETWOOD OPEN A GAP
By Gerry Wolstenholme
Wins for the top two clubs, Netherfield and Fleetwood coupled with results elsewhere meant that the most significant gap of the season so far has opened up between the two leaders and the rest. There is now 12 points between second and third in the table.
Netherfield absolutely murdered Chorley at Parkside where they made 239-8 with Craig Walmsley making 104, Tommy Prime 32 Dale Benkenstein 24 and Gareth White 21. They then bowled Chorley out for a miserable 58 to clinch an overwhelming victory by 171 runs. Benkenstein was the havoc wreaker with 7-31 as Tom Smith's 28 was the only double figure score for the losers.
In a rain reduced game at West Cliff, Fleetwood kept up their challenge with victory over falling Preston, who have suffered a two-point deduction for an alleged slow over rate in their recent game with Chorley. Fleetwood batted first and thanks to 76 by Doug Marillier, who was assisted in a valuable last wicket partnership by Dave Fish who made nine not out, and 53 from John Whalley they made 167 all out with Sam Seadon taking 4-43 and Manoj Parekh 3-40. Preston replied with 143 to lose by 24 runs as only Raouf Akbar, 41, Munaf Bavla, 37, and Chris Southall, 28, reached double figures.
Blackpool beat hapless Leyland by five wickets as, in another rain-reduced contest, they bowled the home side out for just 81 and replied with 82-5. In the Leyland innings Steve Pallett made 33 and there was a last wicket stand of 15 while Steven Croft took 4-9 and Justin Kreusch 3-37. After some early scares, Martin Pickles made 24 not out and Croft 23 in Blackpool's winning total and James Wright led the bowlers with 3-33.
St Annes put the pressure on the front-runners by beating Leyland Motors by three wickets in a splendid game at Vernon Road. Motors batted first and, once again led by Atif Ashraf, they reached 199-5 in their reduced allocation of 51 overs. Ashraf was dominant from start to almost the finish as he was dismissed close to the end for a magnificent 135. Of the rest Andrew Makinson was the best with 22. St Annes started badly, recovered, lost further wickets and then Russ Bradley, 69, and Duncan Whalley, 45 not out, clinched the victory with four balls to spare.
Kendal beat Lancaster as they bowled the Lune Road side out for only 113 to which Renier Munnik posted 54 and Lee Sparkes 27 with Kabir Khan taking 6-30 and Kevin Howarth 3-39. Kendal then posted 114-5 in reply to win by five wickets with Ikram Ullah scoring 41 and Simon Little 36 ass Graham Barnes did his best for his side with 4-43.
And the only game that was drawn was at Morecambe where the home side made 179-6 but were then unable to bowl out Barrow who held on for a draw at 134-8. Brendan Hetherington made a top score of 58 for Morecambe with Charl Langveldt making 44 and skipper Phil Thornton scoring 35 while Ian Allington took 3-49. Langveldt was once again among the wickets and took another eight-wicket haul, this time for 48 runs as only James Riley and Rawl Lewis were able to make any progress as they both scored 38.
Results in brief (home side in bold):
Lancaster 114 (Munnik 54, Khan 6-30), Kendal 114-5 (Barnes 4-43)
Lancaster 2 points, Kendal 12 points
Leyland 81 (Croft 4-9), Blackpool 82-5
Leyland 2 points, Blackpool 12 points
Morecambe 179-6 (Hetherington 58, Langveldt 44) Barrow 134-8 (Langveldt 8-48)
Morecambe 9 points, Barrow 3 points
Netherfield 239-8 (Walmsley 103), Chorley 58 (Benkenstein 7-31)
Netherfield 15 points, Chorley 3 points
Fleetwood 167 (Marillier 76), Preston 143 (Akbar 41, Fish 6-53, Marillier 4-30)
Fleetwood 15 points, Preston 5 points
Leyland Motors 199-5 (Ashraf 135), St Annes 203-7 (Bradley 69, Whalley 45*)
Leyland Motors 6 points, St Annes 12 points
NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE
Division One
| Club |
P |
W15 |
W12 |
D4 |
D1 |
L |
NR4 |
BP |
Pts |
| Netherfield |
15 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
26 |
150 |
| Fleetwood |
15 |
2 |
5 |
3 |
0 |
4 |
1 |
35 |
141 |
| Morecambe |
15 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
22 |
129 |
| Darwen |
14 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
25 |
123 |
| Preston + |
15 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
7 |
1 |
30-2 |
117 |
| Chorley |
14 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
3 |
28 |
117 |
| St Annes |
15 |
1 |
4 |
1* |
3 |
3 |
3 |
30 |
113 |
| Blackpool |
14 |
1 |
5 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
23 |
109 |
| Kendal |
15 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
6 |
1 |
27 |
106 |
| Lancaster |
15 |
1 |
2 |
3* |
2 |
5 |
2 |
37 |
99 |
| Leyland Motors |
15 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
37 |
98 |
| Barrow |
15 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
7 |
2 |
40 |
85 |
| Leyland |
15 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
11 |
2 |
30 |
40 |
* includes 5 point for a tie
+ 2 Points deducted for slow over rate
It was a day of low scores in the Second Division and the best individual effort of the day came from Barrow's Todd Bamber who made 60 albeit in a losing cause for his side's 123-6 was overhauled by Morecambe who won by three wickets at 127-3.
The experienced Morecambe duo of Gulam Maje and Faruk Patel were in the thick of the action as the former made 41 and the latter took 6-71,
Encouraging performance of the day came from Blackpool youngster Jamie Reddy who scored slowly at the start but anchored the innings with 40 not out as Blackpool's 125-3 was sufficient to beat Leyland's 123 in which Ross Parker took 4-22.
It was good to see Jim Fazackerley making 48 for Chorley in their 103 all out, Ryan Wilson taking 5-20, but then B Kennedy, 59 not out, and Danny Welbourne, 42 not out, knocked up 105-0 to give Netherfield a 10-wicket victory.
Second Division scores in brief (home side in bold):
Barrow 123-6 (Bamber 60, Patel 6-71), Morecambe 127-3 (Maje 41)
Barrow 1 point, Morecambe 12 points
Leyland 123 (Parker 4-22), Blackpool 125-3 (Reddy J 40*)
Leyland 1 point, Blackpool 12 points
Chorley 103 (Fazackerley 48, Wilson 5-20), Netherfield 105-0 (Kennedy 59*, Welbourne 42*)
Chorley 0 points, Netherfield 12 points
Preston 121 (Mann M 43, Wilkinson 4-29), Fleetwood 108 (Whiteside 48)
Preston 15 points, Fleetwood 4 points
Kendal 129-7 (Dowker 54), Lancaster 131-8 (Dawson 50*, Potts 5-48)
Kendal 3 points, Lancaster 12 points
Leyland Motors 63 (Booth 5-22), St Annes 66-1
Leyland Motors 0 points, St Annes 12 points
NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE
Division Two
| Club |
P |
W15 |
W12 |
D4 |
D1 |
L |
NR4 |
BP |
Pts |
| Morecambe |
15 |
3 |
7 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
24 |
170 |
| St Annes |
15 |
4 |
7 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
11 |
164 |
| Chorley |
14 |
3 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
7 |
140 |
| Darwen |
14 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
22 |
124 |
| Netherfield |
15 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
4 |
2 |
36 |
117 |
| Lancaster |
15 |
1 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
6 |
1 |
25 |
109 |
| Fleetwood |
15 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
6 |
1 |
36 |
104 |
| Barrow |
14 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
30 |
92 |
| Blackpool |
14 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
31 |
85 |
| Leyland Motors |
15 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
7 |
2 |
33 |
83 |
| Preston |
15 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
9 |
0 |
24 |
61 |
| Leyland |
14 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
8 |
2 |
38 |
59 |
| Kendal |
15 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
9 |
2 |
32 |
58 |
ACTION REPLAY:
LAST OVER VICTORY
Leyland Motors 199-5, St Annes 203-7
By Gerry Wolstenholme
Rain reduced the contest at Vernon Road on Saturday to one of 51 overs for the side batting first and that turned out to be Leyland Motors when Stephen Twist won the toss and asked them to bat. It eventually turned out to be a good decision but not before St Annes had one or two worries along the way. First of all they had to contend with Atif Ashraf who played a majestic innings in scoring 135 out of Motors' total of 199-5 and then after they lost early wickets for few runs before Russ Bradley and Duncan Whalley turned it round and took them to 203-7 and victory by three wickets.
Ashraf dominated the Motors' opening stand so much so that when his partner Faz Patel was dismissed at 34-1 he had five to his name, Dave Taylor at point taking a catch off the bowling of the reliable Richard Thomas. Similarly when the second wicket pair put on 74 runs in 56 minutes it was Ashraf who did the bulk of the scoring with his powerful and typical sub-continental wristy leg side blows and some exquisite driving through the covers. James Aspinwall his partner was dismissed for 15 when Dave Taylor, this time at mid-off took his second catch from the bowling of Jimmy Adams and it was 108-2.
Peter Cummings made five before Adrian Darlington took a tumbling catch at point and it was 133-3. Andrew Makinson them made Ashraf an admirable partner and he played a little cameo innings of 22 that included two beautiful cover drives for four and a powerfully struck six. He was out when he drove a ball back to Twist who held on to make Motors 180-4 as the pair added 47 runs in only 32 minutes.
Ashraf had a life at 58 when Richard Thomas failed to hold on to a hard and high return catch, again at 98 when a single resulted from a dropped chance at slip by Adam Cotton and survived a third less easy chance in the outfield when he had just passed his century. But he continued undaunted, reached his century and had gone on to 135 made from 153 balls with five sixes and 15 fours when he played an uncharacteristic shot as hit across the line and Adams at deep extra cover took a comfortable catch off Twist.
There was just time for David Makinson to make eight not out and Richard Rounding six not out as Motors closed on a defendable 199-5. Twist took 2-50, Adams 2-71 and Thomas 1-34.
The Motors' total looked a long way off when St Annes lost their first three wickets for just 14 runs. All three batsmen were caught by the neat wicketkeeper Matt Watkinson, Boucher off Iqbal Lilley without a run on the board, Darlington, without scoring at 6-2 when he edged a lifter and Twist for four when he hung his bat out to dry at 14-3.
A subdued Adams and the more belligerent Joe Davies took St Annes to 40 before the latter presented Rounding with a simple catch at extra cover and he was gone for 23. Adams remained at the crease for 94 minutes in which time he received 64 balls, hit three fours and made 28 runs before he became the fifth St Annes victim at 84-5 when Colin Sibley at forward short leg took a tentative prod off the bowling of David Makinson.
Adam Cotton struck a quick 13 and then Ashraf bowled him as he essayed a wild slog across the line at 103-6 before Bradley, 69 from 111 balls with 10 fours, and Duncan Whalley, 45 not out from 49 balls with one six and five fours, put on the best St Annes batting display of the afternoon. They resisted the regular changes of bowling tried by Motors and took St Annes to within striking distance of their target before being parted.
It was Bradley who left when he tried to cut a ball from David Makinson that kept low and Watkinson once again took the catch to complete a fine afternoon behind the stumps. Adam Taylor had time to thump one impressive four and finished with seven not out but it was Whalley with two fours from the first two balls of the last of the 20 overs that took St Annes to their three-wicket victory at 203-7. David Makinson was the most successful bowler with 3-38 while the great hearted Sifton Prince took 2-31 and Lilley, not brought back into the attack, had a more than useful opening spell of 9-4-14-1.
