Match Day 4th September 2004 STATUS QUO AT THE TOP AS TITLE RACE GOES DOWN TO THE WIRE By Gerry Wolstenholme There was no change at the top of the table as both leaders Fleetwood and chasing Netherfield won although Netherfield, with 15 points to Fleetwood's 12, did narrow the gap to seven points. The title race will, therefore go down to the wire and next weekend's game will decide who will be champions and the possibilities, although there are only two teams involved, are endless! Fleetwood visit Darwen and Netherfield visit Morecambe and both home sides will be out to prove that they are no pushovers for anyone! At Vernon Road Fleetwood timed their victory charge perfectly and reached 222-7 to win by three wickets with two overs of the final 20 overs remaining. Michael Baer took 6-89 but with 68 from John Whalley, 50 from Michael Clinning and 41 from Rob Clark he could not prevent his side going down to defeat. They had made 221-4 with Jimmy Adams making 116 not out. At Parkside Road Netherfield made a very professional job of defeating bottom club Leyland. Batting first they got off to a rapid start and Craig Walmsley made 30 of the opening 41 runs. Gareth White made 27 but Dale Benkenstein with 100 not out was the star as Netherfield declared at 184-2 from only 27.1 overs. Leyland were bowled out for 98 in reply to lose by 86 runs. Skipper Alex Mercer top scored for Leyland with 41, Charlie Williams made 14, Marc Hadwin took 4-13 and there were two wickets each for Benkenstein and Scott Clement. Benkenstein's innings took him to 463 runs in his last five innings and only being dismissed once, he averages 463 over the same period. Leyland Motors were the day's top scorers, making 252-4 with Atif Ashraf scoring 144 not out and passing his 1,000 runs for the season at the same time. Andrew Makinson made 29 and James Aspinwall, who later took 3-7, made 28. But Lancaster held on with Luke Phillips leading the way with 41 and Ian Parkinson making 32 as they closed at 179-9 with David Makinson taking 4-28. Darwen made an impressive 242-2 against Morecambe who were then bowled out for 184 to lose by 58 runs. Keith Semple made 76 not out, John Cordingley 71 and Gareth Cordingley 42 not out and then Jeff Hacking led the bowlers with 3-47. Phil Thornton made 50 and Andy Bird 36 for Morecambe. Barrow just failed to reach 200 against Blackpool but their 198-9 was not enough as Blackpool won by three wickets with 199-7. Iain Kermode made a top score of 48, skipper Ian Allington made 44 and Rawl Lewis, later to take 4-67, made 24. For Blackpool Tim Barry took 5-60, and made 32 runs, but Justin Kreusch, who took two Barrow wickets, top scored with 36 while there were solid contributions from Robin Bracewell, 34, Martin Pickles, 32, and Steven Croft, 23. Scores in brief (home sides in bold): Barrow 198-9 (Kermode 48, Allington 44, Barry 5-60), Blackpool 199-7 Barrow 6 points, Blackpool 12 points Kendal 124 (Khan 41, Woods 6-26), Chorley 125-3 (Smith T 62*) Kendal 1 point, Chorley 12 points Leyland Motors 252-4 (Ashraf 144*), Lancaster 179-9 (Phillips 41) Leyland Motors 11 points, Lancaster 4 points Darwen 242-2 (Semple 76*, Cordingley J 71, Cordingley G 42*), Morecambe 184 (Thornton 50) Darwen 15 points, Morecambe 3 points Netherfield 184-2 (Benkenstein 100*), Leyland 98 (Mercer 43, Hadwin 4-13) Netherfield 15 points, Leyland 0 points St Annes 221-4 (Adams 116*), Fleetwood 222-7 (Whalley 68, Clinning 50, Clark 41, Baer 6-89) St Annes 6 points, Fleetwood 12 points NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division One Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Fleetwood 23 5 10 3 0 4 1 35 246 Netherfield 23 8 4 5 1 2 3 38 239 Darwen 23 4 7 5 1 4 2 43 216 Morecambe 23 4 8 1 2 6 2 29 199 Chorley 23 5 4 2 0 8 4 37 184 Kendal 23 5 4 1 4 8 1 40 175 Blackpool 23 2 7 1 5 6 2 43 174 St Annes 24 1 5 3* 4 7 4 61 169 Preston 23 4 4 2 1 11 1 46 167 Leyland Motors 23 2 3 4 2 9 3 54 150 Barrow 23 2 3 2 3 11 2 60 145 Lancaster 23 1 2 3* 5 10 2 57 122 Leyland 23 0 0 0 2 17 3 45 59 * includes 5 point for a tie In the Second Division, Morecambe were already assured of the title but they made doubly sure by defeating Darwen by 53 runs despite being bowled out for just 107 to which John Hird contributed 42 and C Davies took 6-58. Faruk Patel then continued his fine form with the ball, taking 6-12 as Darwen were dismissed for 54. The day's bowling honours went to Dave Taylor of St Annes who took an impressive 8-37 as Fleetwood were bowled out for just 70. St Annes lost six wickets in making 71 for victory. Robin Adams of Barrow and Danny Welbourne of Netherfield both made centuries but neither of them found themselves on the winning side. Adams' 100 came out of Barrow's 226-6 with Din Bandara making 47 but Blackpool, thanks to John Caunce's 46, held on for a draw at 149-9 as Bandara completed a fine all-round day by taking 4-20. Welbourne's 106 came out of 225-6 with Ben Haddrick making 40 but Leyland held on at 101-9 Another good all-round day came for Dave Catterall of Chorley as he made 72 not out and took 4-16 as his side's 243-3 was 123 runs too many for Kendal who were dismissed for 120. Ian Mawdsley made a top score of 81 not out for Chorley. Results in brief (home sides in bold): Barrow 226-6 (Adams 100, Bandara 47), Blackpool 149-9 (Caunce 46, Bandara 4-20) Barrow 11 points, Blackpool 4 points Chorley 243-5 (Mawdsley 81*, Catterall D 72*), Kendal 120 (Catterall D 4-16) Chorley 15 points, Kendal 1 point Morecambe 107 (Hird 42, Davies 6-55), Darwen 54 (Patel 6-12) Morecambe 15 points, Darwen 4 points Fleetwood 70 (Taylor D 8-37), St Annes 71-6 Fleetwood 2 points, St Annes 12 points Leyland Motors 207-8 (Totham 52), Lancaster 115-8 (Abraham 50, Cottam 4-27) Leyland Motors 10 points, Lancaster 4 points Netherfield 225-4 (Welbourne 106, Haddrick 40), Leyland 101-9 Netherfield 11 points, Leyland 3 points NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division Two Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Morecambe 23 5 11 5 1 1 0 36 264 St Annes 24 5 10 3 2 3 1 30 243 Chorley 23 6 9 1 2 4 1 19 227 Netherfield 23 3 5 3 3 7 1 62 186 Darwen 23 5 3 3 2 7 3 44 181 Fleetwood 23 5 3 4 1 9 1 44 176 Lancaster 22 2 6 1 2 10 1 37 149 Barrow 23 1 4 5 4 7 2 53 148 Leyland Motors 23 2 3 2 5 8 3 55 146 Blackpool 22 1 4 3 4 8 2 50 137 Kendal 23 0 5 1 3 12 2 40 115 Preston 23 2 1 2 5 13 0 46 101 Leyland 23 0 0 5 4 11 3 57 93 ACTION REPLAY: FLEETWOOD MAINTAIN TITLE ASPIRATIONS St Annes 221-4, Fleetwood 222-7 By Gerry Wolstenholme It was a difficult decision for skipper John Wright to make but he eventually decided to ask St Annes to bat first at Vernon Road on Saturday and in the end it turned out to be a good move as his side won by three wickets with two overs of the final 20 remaining. St Annes made 221-4 from their 57 overs and Fleetwood timed their reply to perfection and won by three wickets with 222-7. Danny Hagen and Adams opened the St Annes innings and it was obvious from the word go that Adams had decided to sign off as St Annes professional with a good score. He took no chances and with a more sedate Hagen at the other end put on 95 for the first wicket. Hagen, scoring mainly from the short, wide balls and missed by Steve Hill at long-off from Marillier's bowling on 30, made 34 from 97 balls with three fours and was then bowled by Marillier. Adrian Darlington made just five before Dave Fish made him his 65th wicket of the season when he bowled him at 102-2. Russ Bradley fared little better and when he had made seven he drove Marillier down the ground and Hill at long-off took the catch and that was 131-3. Adams was moving on quietly at the other end and he lost Joe Davies, 11, when he drove a return catch to Marillier at 159-4. Duncan Whalley then produced the most aggressive batting of the St Annes innings as he took the attack to the Fleetwood bowlers. He had his moments of luck, most notably when Marillier dropped him off a difficult chance at long-off when he had made five and when Adam Sharrocks dropped him at mid-wicket when he had made 22. He took 12 runs from the last five balls of the final over, after an Adams' single, and went to a speedy 32 not out. Adams, missed by Andrew Clough from an overhead chance at mid-wicket on 112, finished on 116 not out made from 154 balls with nine fours and two sixes as St Annes closed on 221-4, perhaps some 30 runs short of a really defendable target. Marillier took 3-82 from his 22 overs while Fish had 1-89 from the same number. The Fleetwood reply began well with John Whalley plundering runs from a succession of Steve Twist no-balls and he and Wright had put on 57 runs in 49 minutes before the latter was caught at slip by Bradley off Baer for 20. Whalley continued to dominate the scoring and he had made 68, 58 of them coming in boundaries with three massive sixes and 10 fours, before Michael Baer bowled him as he seemed to play down the wrong line and that was 116-2. Marillier was very nearly out first ball when his drive struck silly mid-off on the boot and looped upwards for Twist at slip to dash round, dive and just fail to take the catch. He went on to make 21 with two sixes before he drove Baer to Twist and that was 146-3. Meanwhile Clinning was batting sedately but sensibly at the other end. The perfect foil arrived at the crease in the shape of Rob Clark who immediately took the attack to the St Annes bowling. He was quickly in his stride and had made 41 from only 34 balls with seven fours when Bradley caught him off the bowling of Baer and that was 206-4. At this point nerves got the better of Fleetwood and three wickets were lost while 12 runs were added. Clough and Sharrocks both failed to score, the former bowled round his legs by Adams at 206-5 and the latter caught and bowled by Baer at 209-6. Clinning reached a deserved half-century but was then out without adding to his total. He rather rashly dashed down the track to Baer and was stumped by a country mile by Whalley for 50 made from 134 balls with four fours. But his innings had held his side together and had not only provided them with the platform for victory but had also taken them almost to it. James Ellis made five not out but it was Hill who struck the all-important blow when he drove Baer down the ground for four to take Fleetwood to their 222-7 and a three-wicket victory that gave the 12 points, the same as chasing Netherfield, and thus kept them 10 points clear at the top of the table. For St Annes Baer took 6-89 in an excellent spell of left-arm spin while Adams had the other wicket at a cost of 64 runs.

Click Here to send your comments.