Match Day 30th August 2004 STATUS QUO AT THE TOP By Gerry Wolstenholme The Bank Holiday Monday games brought wins for the leading pair, both batting second, and therefore the position at the top of the table was unchanged with Fleetwood holding onto their 10-point lead. At both grounds it was a delayed start due to the wetness of the ground but 44 overs were bowled in the first innings at Broadwater where Fleetwood restricted Blackpool to 124-9 with Tim Barry top scoring with 46 and Steven Croft, 18, passing his 1,000 runs for the season, a tremendous achievement. But Doug Marillier put the brakes on with a 16-over spell that earned him 6-29. Fleetwood's reply owed much to Adam Sharrocks' 30 and Michael Clinning's 39 not out but it was Marillier with 25 not out that took Fleetwood to an eight-wicket victory at 125-2 in 33.4 overs. At Shap Road Kendal faced 42 overs and with Terry Hunte making 37 and David Fallows 31 they made 146-8 as Marc Hadwin took 4-23 and there were two wickets for Ryan Wilson. The in-form Dale Benkenstein led the Netherfield reply as he made 75 not out and there was 30 for Craig Walmsley as the visitors won by seven wickets at 147-3. Chorley batted first at Darwen and Keith Semple took 4-30 and Neil Cordingley 3-29 as they were bowled out for only 127 with Ian Oakes top scoring with 34 and Tom Smith making 29. Although Darwen lost their first four batsmen for just 11 runs between them, Neil Cordingley completed a fine day with 54 not out and there was 22 from Stuart Grant and 32 not out from Chris Clarke as Darwen won by five wickets at 128-5 with Stephen John taking 3-63. Luke Phillips with 18 was Lancaster's top scorer as Morecambe bowled them out for 74. Ben Harrison and Lee Sparkes, both with 13, were the only other batsmen to reach double figures as Peter Stephens took 4-38 and substitute professional Murali Kartik 4-29. Phil Thornton returned to form with 48 not out as Morecambe cruised home by nine wickets with 76-1. It was another low scoring game at Leyland Motors where the home side dismissed Leyland for just 54 to which Zub Patel contributed 26 and Moin-ul-Atiq 11. Peter Cummings took 5-17 and David Makinson 3-8. Atif Ashraf made a top score of 16 as Motors won by six wickets with 59-4. A high-scoring game at Vernon Road saw St Annes win by eight wickets. Preston made 221-6 with Raouf Akbar making 101 and Ian McDonnell 28 and Michael Baer took 5-64 and there were two wickets for Stephen Twist at a cost of just 14 runs. Jimmy Adams, 88 with 11 fours, and Danny Hagen, 57 with eight fours, put on 155 for the first wicket and then Adrian Darlington, 21 not out, and Russ Bradley, 33 not out, saw St Annes home at 220-2. Scores in brief (home sides in bold): Chorley 127 (Semple 4-30), Darwen 128-5 (Cordingley N 54*) Chorley 2 points, Darwen 12 points Blackpool 124-9 (Barry 46, Marillier 6-29), Fleetwood 125-2 Blackpool 0 points, Fleetwood 12 points Kendal 146-8 (Hadwin 4-23), Netherfield 147-3 (Benkenstein 75*) Kendal 2 points, Netherfield 12 points Lancaster 74 (Khartik 4-29, Stephens 4-38), Morecambe 76-1 (Thornton 48*) Lancaster 0 points, Morecambe 12 points Leyland 54 (Cummings 5-17),Leyland Motors 59-4 Leyland 1 point, Leyland Motors 12 points Preston 216 (Akbar 101, Baer 5-64), St Annes 220-2 (Adams 88, Hagen 57) Preston 3 points, St Annes 12 points NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division One Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Fleetwood 22 5 9 3 0 4 1 35 234 Netherfield 22 7 4 5 1 2 3 38 224 Darwen 22 3 7 5 1 4 2 43 201 Morecambe 22 4 8 1 2 5 2 26 196 Kendal 22 5 4 1 4 7 1 39 174 Chorley 22 5 3 2 0 8 4 37 172 Preston 23 4 4 2 1 11 1 46 167 St Annes 23 1 5 3* 4 6 4 55 163 Blackpool 22 2 6 1 5 6 2 43 162 Leyland Motors 22 2 3 3 2 9 3 47 139 Barrow 22 2 3 2 3 10 2 54 139 Lancaster 22 1 2 3* 4 10 2 54 118 Leyland 22 0 0 0 2 16 3 45 59 * includes 5 point for a tie In the Second Division Blackpool were shot out for just 39 by Colin Sherlock 6-23 and Neil Gregson 4-14 and this in reply to Fleetwood's 146 with Andy Armstrong taking 6-51. Faruk Patel took 5-37 as Morecambe's 94-3 gave them a seven-wicket victory over Lancaster who made 93. Kendal were the second low scorers of the day as they made only 46 against Netherfield where Stephen Jones had made 41 from a total of 175-8 in which Adrian Potts took 4-25. Phil Hartley, 6-20, and Tom Barton, 4-14, shared the Kendal wickets. Poor Leyland had no play for the third successive day, a very disappointing Bank Holiday weekend for the Fox Lane club, only made a little better by beating Netherfield 3-1 in a bowl-out in the semi-final of the Smooth Bitter Cup on Sunday. Results in brief (home side in bold): Fleetwood 146 (Armstrong 6-51), Blackpool 39 (Sherlock 6-23, Gregson 4-14) Fleetwood 15 points, Blackpool 4 points Darwen 126-6, Chorley 67-8 (Davies 4-9) Darwen 7 points, Chorley 3 points Leyland v Leyland Motors - match abandoned both sides four points Lancaster 93 (Patel 5-37), Morecambe 94-3 Lancaster 1 point, Morecambe 12 points Netherfield 175-8 (Jones 41, Potts 4-25), Kendal 46 (Hartley 6-20, Barton 4-14) Netherfield 15 points, Kendal 3 points St Annes 129-7 (Patel 4-48), Preston 68-8 (Taylor D 5-33) St Annes 7 points, Preston 4 points NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division Two Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Morecambe 22 4 11 5 1 1 0 36 249 St Annes 23 5 9 3 2 3 1 30 231 Chorley 22 5 9 1 2 4 1 19 212 Darwen 22 5 3 3 2 6 3 40 177 Netherfield 22 3 5 2 3 7 1 55 175 Fleetwood 22 5 3 4 1 8 1 42 174 Lancaster 21 2 6 1 1 10 1 34 145 Barrow 22 1 4 4 4 7 2 46 137 Leyland Motors 22 2 3 1 5 8 3 49 136 Blackpool 21 1 4 3 3 8 2 47 133 Kendal 22 0 5 1 3 11 2 39 114 Preston 23 2 1 2 5 13 0 46 101 Leyland 22 0 0 5 3 11 3 55 90 ACTION REPLAY: FLEETWOOD WINNING SREAK CONTINUES Blackpool 124-9, Fleetwood 125-2 By Gerry Wolstenholme The Fleetwood winning streak continued at a very damp Broadwater on Monday and there was no start until 2.01pm by which time Blackpool, winning the toss and choosing to bat, had 44 overs to face. They made heavy weather of them in the face of some fine off-spin bowling from Doug Marillier and managed to post only 124-9. Fleetwood had bowled their overs swiftly so they had 44 in reply but they required only 33.4 of them to win by eight wickets at 125-2. Blackpool's first wicket put on 45 thanks to Steve Mercer, 11, and Tim Barry, 46, and it was broken in Marillier's third over when he bowled Mercer. Steven Croft came in took two singles and then blasted a straight six that took him to 1,000 League runs for the season. He made only a further 10 before he rashly rushed down the track to Marillier, was beaten and James Ellis completed a smart piece of stumping and that was 69-2. Barry's was the third wicket to fall and it was down to a fine piece of fielding by Adam Sharrocks who dived full length at extra cover to hold a catch off the bowling of Dave Fish and that was 79-3 and virtually the end of Blackpool's attacking intent. They struggled through the middle overs, one 12-over spell bringing just 18 runs and wickets fell regularly. It was 84-4 when Marillier trapped Robin Bracewell leg before wicket for two and he similarly snared Justin Kreusch for three at 85-5. Prash Aga, 18, and Steve Metcalf, 13, put on 30 runs for the sixth wicket but then Fish had Aga leg before wicket and when Marillier bowled Metcalf with a cleverly disguised slower ball it was 117-7. In the same over Marillier bowled John Caunce with a similar ball and that was 117-8. Karl Marsland, one, was run out off the final ball and with Paul Danson not out seven, the Blackpool innings closed on 124-9. Marillier had 6-29 and Fish 2-55, giving him 64 wickets for the season. Fleetwood began their reply swiftly and there were 31 on the board when John Wright fell leg before wicket to Croft for 18. Sharrocks and Michael Clinning continued in the same vein and it came as something of a surprise when Sharrocks, who had not looked in any trouble, was bowled by the day's surprise ball, a slower one, this time from Danson. Fleetwood were then 84-2 but there were no further alarms as Clinning, once again a cultured knock with only one alarm when he just cleared Bracewell at long-off, 39 not out, and Marillier, who completed a fine all-round day with 25 not out, saw Fleetwood home by eight wickets at 125-2 with 11.2 overs of the final 20 remaining.

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