Match Day 21st August 2004 FLEETWOOD NARROW THE GAP By Gerry Wolstenholme While League leaders Netherfield could only manage a draw against a gallant Blackpool side (and this for the second time this season), second-placed Fleetwood batted first, won and collected maximum points from their visit to Lune Road. The gap at the top of the table between first and second was therefore reduced to just five points. Netherfield batted first and made 241-5 with Dale Benkenstein making his first NPL century with 125 not out. Chris Parry made 53 and Craig Walmsley 20 while Justin Kreusch took 3-43 for Blackpool and there was a wicket each for Tim Barry and Karl Marsland. In reply Blackpool made 143-8 to which Steven Croft once again made the top score, this time 48. Barry made 23, Kreusch 16 and then skipper Paul Danson, seven not out, and Marsland, without scoring, held out for the draw as Ryan Wilson took 3-23, Marc Hadwin 2-37, Stuart Nixon 2-43 and Benkenstein 1-25. The 10 points that Netherfield earned kept them just five points ahead of Fleetwood and with next Saturday Netherfield's free day, Fleetwood have an opportunity to take the lead. As it was they got their 15 points by batting first at Lancaster and making 223-7 to which John Whalley contributed 52 with nine fours and Doug Marillier 50 with three sixes and two fours. Michael Clinning made 44 and John Wright 42 while Graham Barnes bowled a marathon spell of 28 overs that brought him an excellent 4-68. When Lancaster batted Heywood, father and son, opened but both David and Craig went without scoring and it was left to Luke Philips with 51 not out, an innings that contained nine fours, to provide the best batting of the Lancaster reply. Ben Harrison made 25 and Ian Parkinson 12 but the rest failed to reach double figures as Lancaster were all out for 116. Steve Hill took the bowling honours with 4-31 while Tom Blundell bowled his usual parsimonious spell, his 9.2 overs only producing 15 runs but ended with him having three wickets. Dave Fish took his tally of wickets to 57 for the season with 2-30 and Andrew Clough had 1-19. Preston ran up their eighth victory of the season against bottom club Leyland who were bowled out for just 72 with Parvez Suma making a top score of 22 and the 13 extras being the next best contribution although Moin-ul-Atiq did make 11. Raouf Akbar had 6-34 and Rhys Williams took 3-22. And this was in reply to Preston's effort of 167-9 to which Anthony Mann contributed 38, Greg Bamber 30 and Manoj Parkeh, in his final season for the club, 25 not out. Steve Pallet bowled well for his side and took a deserved 6-71 while there was one wicket each for James Wright, Suma and Chris Kelly. At Vernon Road the game did not get underway until three o'clock and then St Annes began steadily, accelerated, lost their way a little and ended up with 163-4 from 40 overs with Jimmy Adams making 54. Kendal had 35 overs in reply and although Terry Hunte made 49 and Kabir Khan 51 not out, it was not enough to win the game as they too ended up with 163, this time with three wickets lost. The game therefore ended in a draw. Barrow batted first when they entertained Darwen and were at one time in serious trouble but some late order heroics from Ian Kermode, 32, Jon Sturgeon, 23, and Daryl Wearing, 20, helped them reach 170-9 with Rawl Lewis, the only early order batsman to make runs, top scoring with 53. Andrew Mercer took 5-64, Jeff Hacking 2-23, Gareth Cordingley 1-17 and Keith Semple 1-44. Darwen then won by seven wickets as Gary Jackson made 49, Keith Semple 45 not out, Gareth Cordingley 32 and Jeff Hacking 19 not out while Rawl Lewis had 2-55 and Wearing 2-48. The game between Chorley and Leyland Motors was abandoned without a ball being bowled. Scores in brief (home sides in bold): Barrow 170-9 (Lewis 53, Mercer 5-64), Darwen 171-4 (Jackson 49, Semple 45*) Barrow 3 points, Darwen 12 points Chorley v Leyland Motors - match abandoned both sides four points Fleetwood 223-7 (Whalley 52, Marillier 50, Clinning 44, Wright 40, Barnes 4-68), Lancaster 116 (Phillips 51*, Hill 4-31) Fleetwood 15 points, Lancaster 3 points Netherfield 241-5 (Benkenstein 125*, Parry 53), Blackpool 143-8 (Croft 48) Netherfield 10 points, Blackpool 4 points Preston 167-9 (Pallett 6-71), Leyland 72 (Akbar 6-34) Preston 15 points, Leyland 4 points St Annes 163-4 (Adams 54), Kendal 163-3 (Khan 51*, Hunte 49) St Annes 7 points, Kendal 4 points NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division One Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Netherfield 21 7 3 5 1 2 3 38 212 Fleetwood 20 4 8 3 0 4 1 35 207 Morecambe 20 4 7 1 2 4 2 22 180 Darwen 20 3 6 4 1 4 2 37 179 Chorley 20 5 3 2 0 6 4 31 166 Preston 20 4 4 2 1 9 1 42 163 Kendal 20 5 3 1 4 6 1 37 160 Blackpool 20 2 5 1 5 5 2 43 150 St Annes 21 1 4 3* 4 6 3 55 147 Barrow 21 1 3 2 3 10 2 54 124 Leyland Motors 20 2 2 3 2 8 3 43 123 Lancaster 20 1 2 3* 3 9 2 53 116 Leyland 20 0 0 0 2 16 2 44 54 * includes 5 point for a tie In the Second Division leaders Morecambe maintained their lead despite not playing as St Annes could only manage a draw with Kendal after making 101-7 in a rain reduced contest. In reply Danny George made 42 for Kendal but Dave Taylor's 5-47 kept the home side to 97-8. Rob Lightfoot took the batting honours of the day with 76 for Barrow for whom Robin Adams made 50 in their 187-8 with Michael Grant taking 4-35 and Dave Bonner taking 4-39. However, Darwen held out for a draw at 114-7 despite Ray Mowat's 4-22. Ian Burstow's 5-51 was the best bowling return of the day as he took 5-51 and with Paul Dennison taking 4-34 Fleetwood were bowled out for 112. Colin Sherlock struck back and took 5-41 as Lancaster, 91 all out, lost by 21 runs. Scores in brief (home sides in bold): Netherfield 134 (Haddrick 44, Parker 4-44), Blackpool 135-4 Netherfield 1 point, Blackpool 12 points Barrow 187-8 (Lightfoot 76, Adams 50, Grant M 4-35, Bonner 4-39) Darwen 114-7 (Mowat 4-22) Barrow 10 points, Darwen 4 points Fleetwood 112 (Burstow 5-51, Dennison 4-34), Lancaster 91 (Sherlock 5-41) Fleetwood 15 points, Lancaster 4 points St Annes 101-7, Kendal 97-8 (George 42, Taylor D 5-47) St Annes 7 points, Kendal 4 points Leyland 132-6 (Bretherton 50*, Brown 48), Preston 61-3 Leyland 5 points, Preston 3 points Leyland Motors 162-8, Chorley 131-9 Leyland Motors 10 points, Chorley 4 points NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division Two Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Morecambe 20 4 10 4 1 1 0 29 226 St Annes 21 5 8 2 2 3 1 27 212 Chorley 20 4 9 1 1 4 1 17 194 Darwen 20 5 3 2 2 5 3 33 166 Netherfield 21 2 5 2 3 7 1 55 160 Fleetwood 20 3 3 4 1 8 1 42 144 Barrow 21 1 4 4 4 6 2 44 135 Lancaster 19 1 6 1 1 9 1 33 129 Leyland Motors 20 2 3 1 5 7 2 45 128 Blackpool 19 1 4 3 2 7 2 41 126 Kendal 20 0 4 1 3 10 2 36 99 Preston 21 2 1 2 4 12 0 40 94 Leyland 20 0 0 5 3 10 2 55 86 ACTION REPLAY: DRAW WITH SCORES LEVEL St Annes 163-4, Kendal 163-3 By Gerry Wolstenholme Following a two-hour delay due to the damp state of the outfield at Vernon Road, St Annes and Kendal played out an exciting game that ended with the scores level at 163 each with a combined total of only seven wickets being lost, four to St Annes and three to Kendal. With 40 overs to bat St Annes were put in by Dave Fallows and openers Danny Hagen and Jimmy Adams put on a century for the first wicket. Both batsmen took their time although the 100 did arrive in 98 minutes and Adams was just beginning to open up when he was second out within nine runs of his partner. Hagen had one six and four fours in his 91-ball innings that was ended when he drove Kabir Khan to Chris Miller at long-on and he was gone for 39 with the total exactly 100. Miller had previously dropped Adams at short extra cover when he had made 45 and he was missed again by Stuart Parkin at long-on when he had made 51. But he did not survive long thereafter for, on 54, made from 96 balls with one six and six fours, Khan trapped him leg before wicket and it was 109-2. With the loss of the two established batsmen within such a short space of time, Adrian Darlington and Adam Cotton not only had to come in and re-establish the innings but they had to try and do it quickly. Cotton perished in the chase for quick runs when Kevin Howarth forced him to play on for six at 116-3 and Duncan Whalley, who followed him, was caught at long-on by Gareth Ashburner off Howarth for five at 132-4. Adrian Darlington, given a life by James Rafferty at third man when he had made six, then made an enterprising 22 not out from only 25 balls and with Joe Davies also making a quick 14 not out, St Annes were able to finish at over four runs per over with 163-4. Khan, 2-74, and Howarth, 2-37, shared the wickets. Ikram Ullah was the inspiration for the Kendal reply and he had made 25 of the first 40 runs when he edged Stephen Twist to Whalley and it was 46-2 in the 14th over when Michael Baer bowled Simon Little for a hard-worked 12, perhaps 11 more than he should have scored had not Davies dropped what seemed a simple chance at extra cover when he had made just one. Terry Hunte began in his usual expressive and explosive way and with Khan he looked likely to win the game for his side. But Baer bowled tightly as did Twist in his longish spell and Adams kept control of the batsmen even though Khan struck him for one huge six into an adjacent garden at the north end, to match the one that Adams had struck through a window of a house at the south end when St Annes had batted. Hunte was dismissed when Davies entered the attack. His first ball was struck for two and his second was short. Hunte rose to the challenge and pulled it but got the ball too high on the bat and he only succeeded in giving Darlington at mid-on the simplest of catches and he was gone for 49 made from 42 balls with eight fours and Kendal were 114-3. Khan and Howarth kept the required rate to around a run a ball and there were 12 runs needed from the final two overs. Adams kept them to five runs from the penultimate over and then Davies bowled an excellent last over to allow Kendal just six runs so that they ended with 163-3 and the game was unexpectedly drawn with the scores level. Khan finished with 51 not out made from 72 balls with one six and one four and Howarth was 15 not out as St Annes took seven points to Kendal's four.

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