Match Day 31st July 2004 HIGH-SCORING NETHERFIELD HOLD THE LEAD By Gerry Wolstenholme Five hundred and nineteen runs were scored at Parkside on Saturday as leaders Netherfield entertained, and defeated St Annes. With all the top five clubs winning it is now only 23 points that separate them so there is still much to play for this season. A new first wicket record for the League was set by St Annes as Jimmy Adams, 142 not out, and Danny Hagen, 105 not out, put on 259 in the 57 overs so that for the second week in succession in League games, Netherfield failed to take a wicket. But this time their batsmen were on form, on a track that was described as "a road" by one Netherfield supporter, and they overhauled the St Annes total with two of their 53 overs unused. Craig Walmsley got them off to a rapid start with 87 and with Chris Parry, 35, put on 113 for the first wicket. Gareth White carried on the good work with a fine 58 before he fell to an excellent overhead catch on the boundary by Adrian Darlington and with Grahame Clarke 33 not out and Dale Benkenstein 29 not out, Netherfield won by seven wickets with an impressive 260-3. Second placed Morecambe (there on the basis of having more wins than Fleetwood who are equal on points) defeated Preston comfortably as they bowled them out for 146 with Charl Langeveldt, on his final appearance for the club this season as he has been called home for international duties, taking 7-68 and Glenn Johnstone top scoring for his side with 33 not out, adding to 30 by Munaf Bavla, 26 by Pervez Shah and 23 by Sam Seadon. Morecambe then made 147-6 to win by four wickets with Jack Hird making a top score of 56 and Brendan Hetherington making 27 while Rhys Williams took 3-29. Fleetwood made a massive 263-6 at Barrow where Doug Marillier made 117, Rob Clark 55, John Wright 42 and John Whalley 32. Barrow were then greatly indebted to professional Rawl Lewis, who despite having a runner for the latter part of his innings, made a tremendous 120 from their total of 176 to which the next best effort was 14 made by skipper Ian Allington and also by James Riley. There were three wickets each for Steve Hill, for 22 runs, Dave Fish, for 43 runs, and Andrew Clough, for 34 runs as Fleetwood won by 87 runs. Darwen kept the pressure on the top three by thrashing Leyland Motors by eight wickets as they bowled them out for just 72 to which Faruk Patel contributed a top score of 21 while James Aspinwall made 14, Andrew Makinson 11 and Iqbal Lilley 10. Neil Cordingley took the bowling honours with 4-16 while there were two wickets apiece for Andrew Mercer and Jeff Hacking. Gary Jackson's 53 not out was the cornerstone of Darwen's 76-2 in reply. Chorley declared at 216-9 in their game against Leyland with Tom Smith making 89 and featuring in an opening stand of 91 with Nick Woods, 27. Smith then put on a further 72 with Stephen John who made 44 as James Wright bowled well to take a deserved 5-55. Skipper Alex Mercer top scored for Leyland with 43 but only N Afsar, 31, and Moin-ul-Atiq, 22, gave him much support as the Smith brothers, Tom 4-21, and Billy, 3-27, helped bowl the visitors out for 169 and condemn them to defeat by 47 runs. And finally at Stanley Park, Kendal defeated Blackpool by 64 runs by making 191-9 and then bowling the home side out for 127. It was Kevin Howarth's day as he made 76 not out and then followed this up with an excellent bowling performance of 5-26 while Kabir Khan took the other five wickets for 58 runs. Steven Croft's 28 was the top score for Blackpool who lost wickets steadily throughout their innings. Scores in brief (home teams in bold): Fleetwood 263-6 ((Marillier 117, Clark 55), Barrow 176 (Lewis 120) Fleetwood 15 points, Barrow 4points Kendal 191-9 (Howarth 76*), Blackpool 127(Howarth 5-26, Khan 5-58) Kendal 15 points, Blackpool 4 points Chorley 216-9 dec (Smith T 89, John 44, Wright 5-55), Leyland 169 (Mercer 43) Chorley 15 points, Leyland 6 points Leyland Motors 72 (Cordingley N 4-16), Darwen 76-2 (Jackson 53*) Leyland Motors 0 points, Darwen 12 points Preston 146 (Hird 58, Langeveldt 7-68), Morecambe 147-6 Preston 3 points, Morecambe 12 points St Annes 259-0 (Adams 142*, Hagen 105*), Netherfield 260-3 (Walmsley 86, White 58) St Annes 4 points, Netherfield 12 points NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division One Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Netherfield 18 5 3 4 1 2 3 32 172 Morecambe 18 4 6 1 2 3 2 22 168 Fleetwood 17 3 6 3 0 4 1 35 168 Darwen 17 3 5 4 0 3 2 29 158 Chorley 17 5 2 2 0 5 3 30 149 Preston + 17 3 4 1 1 8 1 36-2 136 Kendal 17 5 1 1 3 6 1 34 132 St Annes 18 1 4 1* 4 5 3 44 128 Blackpool 17 1 5 1 3 5 2 37 127 Leyland Motors 18 2 2 3 2 7 2 39 115 Lancaster 17 1 2 3* 3 6 2 45 108 Barrow 18 1 2 2 3 8 2 48 106 Leyland 18 0 0 0 2 14 2 39 49 * includes 5 point for a tie + 2 Points deducted for slow over rate (Subject to appeal) In the Second Division there were two centurions, both in the same game. Danny Welbourne was at it again for Netherfield as he contributed 134 not out to his side's 235-5 and then the almost equally prolific Sean Bickerdike made 106 for St Annes who held on for the draw at 209-9 with Phil Hartley taking 4-56. Elsewhere, Jack Catterall's 92 was the best individual batting effort as his side, Chorley, made 165-8 against Leyland who refused to be bowled out and managed to draw the game with 135-8 in reply. Best bowling of the day came from Morecambe's Reg Cupit who took 5-46 against Preston but then found himself on the losing side as Morecambe's 145 all out was not enough. Preston made 146-9 with C Smith making 46 and Michael Mann 41 to inflict a first defeat off the season on the Second Division leaders. Results in brief (home side in bold): Fleetwood 141 (Cosgrove 4-50), Barrow 142-2 (Dundara 50*) Fleetwood 1 point, Barrow 12 points Blackpool 153 (Thompson 41), Kendal 154-7 (Ellwood 47) Blackpool 4 points, Kendal 12 points Chorley 165-8 (Catterall J 92), Leyland 135-8 Chorley 9 points, Leyland 4 points Darwen 150 (Grant 54), Leyland Motors 153-7 (Rounding J 42, Chatterton 4-47) Darwen 4 points, Leyland Motors 12 points Morecambe 145 (Izatt 41), Preston 146-9 (Smith 46, Mann M 41, Cupit 5-46) Morecambe 5 points, Preston 12 points Netherfield 255-5 (Welbourne 134*), St Annes 209-9 (Bickerdike 106, Hartley 4-56) Netherfield 11 points, St Annes 6 points NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division Two Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Morecambe 18 3 9 4 1 1 0 29 199 St Annes 18 5 7 1 2 2 1 21 190 Chorley 17 3 8 1 0 4 1 14 163 Darwen 17 5 3 2 1 3 3 26 158 Netherfield 18 2 4 2 3 5 1 51 144 Lancaster 17 1 6 1 1 7 1 25 121 Fleetwood 17 2 3 3 1 7 1 37 120 Barrow 17 1 3 3 3 5 2 34 108 Leyland Motors 18 1 3 0 5 7 2 39 103 Blackpool 17 0 3 3 2 7 2 41 99 Preston 18 2 1 2 3 10 0 31 84 Kendal 17 0 3 1 2 9 2 32 82 Leyland 17 0 0 3 2 10 2 45 67 ACTION REPLAY: HOWARTH'S DAY AT STANLEY PARK Kendal 191-9, Blackpool 127 By Gerry Wolstenholme Kendal won the toss and decided to bat at Stanley Park on Saturday and very quickly regretted the decision as both opening batsmen were back in the pavilion with only 12 runs on the board. The combination of wicketkeeper Richard Cragg and Justin Kreusch were the architects of the batsmen's downfall as Gareth Ashburner, one, was adjudged caught behind for one with the total on three and then Ikram Ullah, batting as though he was a millionaire, swished at a widish ball and he was dismissed for five at 12-2. The prolific Terry Hunte and Simon Little then batted confidently with the former looking in particularly good form as he drove two superb fours down the ground and smashed one powerfully through extra cover. But when he had made 34 he miscued an attempted pull from Karl Marsland and only succeeded in getting a bottom edge onto his stumps and he was gone for 34 made from 42 balls with six fours and Kendal were 52-3. And it was 76-4 when Little, 24, fell leg before wicket when attempting to play Steven Croft into the leg side. Kevin Howarth joined Kabir Khan and he proceeded to monopolise the remainder of the innings. Khan was the only batsman of the rest to reach double figures but when he had 17 he got a bottom edge to Kreusch and Cragg took the catch and that was 118-5. From then on it was very much the Kevin Howarth show as he nursed his partners along with the exception of skipper Dave Fallows who holed out for seven to Croft at cow corner off Steve Mercer at 128-6. Stuart Parkin fell leg before wicket to Tim Barry for nought at 134-7 and then young Daniel George gave Howarth some support as the pair added a valuable 46 runs in 41 minutes. Cragg missed Howarth off a low chance when he was 38 but otherwise he was untroubled as he did his best to maintain the strike. George, a valiant five, survived for 44 balls before he was run out by a superb piece of fielding by Croft who turned in his follow through and threw down the stumps and it was 180-8. James Rafferty drove one four through the covers before Barry bowled him for five at 188-9 and there was just time for Chris Miller to make two not out as Howarth finished on an excellent 76 made from 109 balls with 10 fours as Kendal closed on 191-9. The Blackpool bowlers shared the wickets, Kreusch having the best return of 3-46 while Barry had 2-62, Mercer 1-7, Marsland 1-20 and Croft 1-40. Blackpool got off to a steady if not spectacular start thanks to some dreadful catching by the Kendal fielders. Fallows dropped a regulation catch in the gully from Mercer off Rafferty when the batsman had made seven and Kreusch escaped twice in three balls. Firstly on 11 Ashburner dropped him at mid-off and he took a couple of runs and then, on 13, Parkin missed him at square leg. It nearly looked as though another chance would go down when Ullah behind the stumps got a hand to an edge from Mercer but did not take the ball. However, Howarth showed that it was very much his day as he took the resultant miss and Mercer was on his way for six at 22-1. Kreusch failed to capitalise on his good fortune as Khan trimmed his bails when he had made 21 and the total was 39-2. Croft and Barry took it to 76 before Khan beat the latter for pace and bowled him for nine. Croft looked good as he went to 28 at which point Khan trapped him on the back foot and he was leg before wicket at 80-4. At that point in stepped Howarth the bowler and he proceeded to take the next five wickets. He had Prash Aga, five, caught behind by Ullah, bowled Paul Danson, four, and then did the same to John Caunce who failed to score. Karl Marsland, three and dropped by Ullah before he had scored, was caught at extra cover by Hunte and then Howarth removed the last obstacle when he had Robin Bracewell caught at short mid-on by Miller for a fighting 27 and that left Blackpool reeling on 123-9. Four more runs were added before Khan took the final wicket when he had Cragg leg before wicket for two and with Ross Parker not out two. Blackpool were all out for 127 and defeated by 64 runs. In a superb spell of seam bowling Howarth had figures of 12-7-26-5 while Khan took 5-58 to give Kendal 15 points.

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