Match Day 25th June 2005 ST ANNES LEAD CUT BACK - BY A POINT! By Gerry Wolstenholme Saturday's round of NPL fixtures saw the St Annes lead at the top of the table cut but only by a single point as they could only manage a draw with Chorley while nearest challengers Netherfield fared similarly at home to Blackpool. But Netherfield earned an extra bonus point so cut the gap to 25 points. Elsewhere there were wins for Leyland Motors, Morecambe and Leyland while Preston drew at Barrow. At Vernon Road the League leaders batted first and amassed a mighty 242-6 with Ian Austin making 98. Chorley then set about saving the game and by dint of a superb fighting century, 101 not out, by skipper Neil Bannister they were able to do so at 174-4 with Shane Harwood taking all four wickets to fall at a cost of 45 runs. Netherfield similarly amassed a good total, reaching 249-4 with Pierre de Bruyn restored to the opening spot top scoring with another century, this time 117 not out. Chris Parry chipped in with a quick-fire 64 and Gareth White made 21 while Justin Kreusch took 3-61. Kreusch then made 65 not out and with Steven Croft scoring 41 and Tim Barry 30, Blackpool batted out for a draw at 188-5. Preston made 176-7 at the Ernest Pass Memorial Ground with Paul Mann making 46, Yasim Patel 37 and Lukman Vahaluwala 20 while Rawl Lewis took 4-53. Preston then had Barrow in a great deal of trouble as they lost their first six wickets for less than 50. However late order defiance saved the day as Daryl Wearing, 26 not out and top scoring for his side for the second time this season, and Peter Lawson, six not out, batted out the final six overs to leave Barrow with a draw at 137-9. Dean Williams made 25, Ray Mowat 23 and Iain Kermode 21 as Vahaluwala completed a good all-round day with 6-36. Morecambe won convincingly at Darwen where the home side were bowled out for a disappointing 116 and the visitors replied with a comfortable 117-2 to clinch the eight-wicket victory. Jeff Hacking's 27 was the best effort for Darwen while Andrew Mercer made 19 and Stuart Grant 18. Tommy Clough took the bowling honours with 4-24 and he was ably assisted by Peter Stephens, 3-25, and Mark Orchard, 3-35. Mali Maketa then made 44, John Hird 28 and Orchard 21 not out as Morecambe completed the formalities with their 117-2. Kendal, seemingly in free fall at the moment, lost to Leyland at Fox Lane as they were bowled out for 147, Kabir Khan making 50 and Mohammed Yashin 31. For Leyland Brian Tennant kept up his good form with 5-54 and substitute professional Jon Harvey took 3-46. In Leyland's reply Harvey top scored with 62, Tennant was there at the death with 27 not out and Alex Mercer made 26 as Khan tried to rally his troops with 3-37 but Leyland won by four wickets with 149-6. Leyland Motors made it a double for the town as they overcame Lancaster at Lune Road where the home side were bowled out for 167 thanks to David Makinson's 5-30 and Atif Ashraf's 3-51 while the in-form David Heywood made 39, Jamie Heywood 38 and Ian Parkinson 32. This total spelt defeat for Lancaster as Motors had posted 193-5 with Ashraf making the bulk of the runs, 120 not out. Scores in brief (home sides in bold): Preston 176-7 (Mann P 46, Lewis 4-53), Barrow 137-9 (Vahaluwala 6-36) Preston 9 points, Barrow 3 points Darwen 116 (Clough 4-24), Morecambe 117-2 (Maketa 44) Darwen 0 points, Morecambe 12 points Leyland Motors 193-5 (Ashraf 120*), Lancaster 167 Leyland Motors 15 points, Lancaster 3 points Kendal 147 (Khan 50, Tennant 5-54), Leyland 149-6 (Harvey 62) Kendal 2 points, Leyland 12 points Netherfield 249-4 (de Bruyn 117*) Blackpool 188-5 (Kreusch 65*) Netherfield 8 points, Blackpool 4 points St Annes 242-6 (Austin 98), Chorley 174-4 (Bannister 101*, Harwood 4-45) St Annes 7 points, Chorley 4 points SURRIDGE NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division One Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts St Annes 12 2 6 2 1 0 1 10 125 Netherfield 12 2 2 4 1 1 2 23 100* Blackpool 12 2 1 2 3 1 3 19 84 Barrow 12 1 3 1 2 2 3 12 81 Fleetwood 12 2 1 2 0 4 3 16 78 Darwen 12 1 3 1 2 1 3 8 77 Leyland 12 0 3 1 2 3 3 15 69 Morecambe 12 1 1 3 2 3 2 20 69 Lancaster 12 1 2 0 0 6 3 11 62 Chorley 12 1 0 2 4 2 3 25 62* Leyland Motors 12 1 1 1 1 6 2 19 59 Kendal 12 0 1 1 2 5 3 26 56 Preston 12 1 0 2 2 4 3 19 54* * 2 points deducted for Slow Over Rate In the Second Division Barrow's Din Bandara took the season's best bowling figures to date with 8-44 as Preston were bowled out for 84 and Barrow made 86-2 to win by eight wickets with Robin Adams making 47. And the Brown brothers for Leyland had a good family day as Martin made 66 in his side's 119-9, Andy Dugdale 6-65, and then Michael took 6-29 as Kendal were bowled out for 91 to lose by 28 runs. Every other game ended in a positive result with wins for Blackpool, St Annes, the only unbeaten side inflicting the first defeat of the season on Chorley, Leyland Motors and Darwen. Scores in brief (home sides in bold): Blackpool 202-9 (Taylor M 76, Reddy J 40), Netherfield 120 (Reddy J 5-40) Blackpool 15 points, Netherfield 3 points Chorley 177 (Sweeney 44*, Booth 5-56), St Annes 179-5 (Taylor 82*) Chorley 3 points, St Annes 12 points Leyland 119-9 (Brown M A 66, Dugdale 6-68), Kendal 91 (Brown M 6-29) Leyland 15 points, Kendal 3 points Lancaster 120, Leyland Motors 123-3 (Totham 59) Lancaster 0 points, Leyland Motors 12 points Morecambe 167 (Errington 50), Darwen 171-5 (Heyes 51, Carr 45) Morecambe 3 points, Darwen 12 points Preston 84 (Bandara 8-44), Barrow 86-2 (Adams R 47*) Preston 0 points, Barrow 12 points SURRIDGE NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division Two Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Chorley 12 2 4 1 1 1 3 10 105 Netherfield 12 4 1 2 1 2 2 15 104 Fleetwood 12 2 4 0 1 3 2 14 101 Barrow 12 1 4 2 1 2 2 17 97 Morecambe 12 1 4 2 0 3 2 18 97 St Annes 11 1 5 0 2 0 3 6 95 Darwen 12 1 4 2 1 2 1 17 93 Leyland Motors 12 0 3 2 1 5 1 19 68 Blackpool 12 2 0 1 0 6 3 18 64 Leyland 12 2 1 0 1 5 3 7 62 Preston 11 2 1 0 1 4 3 5 60 Kendal 12 2 0 0 1 8 1 16 51 Lancaster 12 0 0 0 1 8 2 9 18 MATCH ACTION BANNISTER THWARTS ST ANNES St Annes 242-6, Chorley 174-4 By Gerry Wolstenholme St Annes four-game winning streak came to an end at Vernon Road on Saturday when Neil Bannister led a Chorley rearguard action that thwarted the St Annes bowling and earned a draw against the runaway League leaders. St Annes were put in to bat and made 242-6 from their 52 overs and Chorley, after the horror of losing professional Tom Smith to the first ball of the innings, fought hard to reply with a creditable 174-4. St Annes got off to a smart start courtesy of some quick scoring by Gareth Evans who had 21 of the opening partnership of 32 when his partner Adrian Darlington, nine, received a ball that appeared to stop on him and he only succeeded in returning a catch to bowler Tom Smith. Evans, dropped by Nigel Heaton at slip when he had made one, then lost a lot of the strike as Ian Austin did most of the scoring although he did survive a vehement appeal for a catch behind the wicket early in his innings. Indeed Evans had only advanced to 29 from the total of 70 when he advanced down the track and, more in frustration than anything else, tried to drive Ian Mawdsley down the ground only to loft a gentle catch to Chris Roe at mid-off. Shane Harwood's entry to the crease got the good-sized crowd on the edge of their seats after his big-hitting exploits at Lancaster the previous Sunday but he had only made 18 when Bannister bowled him at 115-3. Heaton missed another chance, albeit not an easy one, when Austin, on 58, skied to mid-off from the bowling of Billy Smith and next ball the batsman had another let off when Roe at deep mid-on dropped a straightforward chance. Steven Twist made 20 before Heaton, on the long-off boundary, made it third time lucky as he held onto a ball that had Twist followed through would have cleared him and gone into the gardens behind and that was 160-4. Austin had a third escape on 73 when he drove Billy Smith back dangerously close to the leaping bowler's hands. He finally succumbed in unfortunate fashion when he had made 98 from 125 balls and with 11 fours. He was at the non-striker's end when Adam Cotton drove a ball straight back down the wicket and Tom Smith got finger tips to it to divert it into the stumps with Austin out of his ground. St Annes were then 199-5. Cotton made 31 before a direct hit from Bannister, with the umpire trying to get into a decent position, ran him out at 226-6 and with Joe Davies 18 not out and Russ Bradley five not out, St Annes closed on 242-6. The Chorley reply began in disastrous fashion when Harwood's first ball trapped Tom Smith in front of his wicket and found him leg before. The experienced pair of Bannister and Heaton then set about blunting the fiery pace of Harwood and although they did not look likely to win the game, they seemed in little trouble as Austin rotated his bowlers in an attempt to break the partnership. It was the drinks interval that cost Chorley their next wicket as Harwood returned to the attack. He bowled Heaton for a hard fought 24 at 79-2 and then very quickly accounted in similar fashion for Paul Greenwood, four, and Michael Critchley, nought, both wickets falling at 101. But by then Bannister was well set and determined not to see his side lose and he found a more than able ally in Neil Senior and the pair saw out the game with Chorley scoring 174-4. Bannister made a deserved century, 101 not out from 161 balls with three sixes, two hooked in one over from Twist, and 14 fours while Senior made 21. Harwood's four wickets came at slightly more cost than usual, his 17 overs costing 45 runs. Ian Austin leaves the field after making 98

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