Match Day 30th July 2005 LEADERS BEATEN By Gerry Wolstenholme At the 18th time of asking St Annes finally lost their first League game of the season as Kendal were triumphant at Vernon Road. Second placed Netherfield had no game so the gap at the top remains at 40 points, probably enough of a cushion to allow St Annes a couple more blips before they secure the title. It was an explosive start to the game as Ikram Ullah blasted 42 quick runs for Kendal and with Terry Hunte also making 42 and the last two Kendal wickets putting on 51 runs, the Cumbrians totalled a creditable 173 with Shane Harwood adding six more wickets to his impressive season's tally. The St Annes' reply faltered from the start and half the side had gone for just 27 but Joe Davies made 31 and Duncan Whalley 18 as Russ Bradley, with a fine 59 not out, did his level best to rescue St Annes. But Kevin Howarth finished the game with his sixth wicket for 75 runs and with Kabir Khan taking 4-65, St Annes, all out for 158, lost by 15 runs. Blackpool moved into third place with an impressive 48-run victory over Barrow at the Ernest Pass Memorial Ground. The visitors batted first and with 16-year-old debutant Jamie Reddy making 56, after being dropped on one, and Justin Kreusch making 98, Blackpool finished on 202-6. Steven Croft, who had made 18, then destroyed Barrow with an NPL best of 7-30 as only Rawl Lewis showed any resistance as he made 92. Stephen Glasgow made 18 and Daryl Wearing 12 as Barrow were bowled out for 154. All the other games ended in draws with Morecambe making the day's joint top score of 234-8 with Mark Orchard making 95, Mali Maketa 43 and Phil Dennison 35 as there were two wickets each for Steve Pallett, for 81, Brian Tennant, for 30, and Adam Parker, for 33. Parker then top scored with 55, Nigel Pearson made 33 and Alex Mercer 25 as Leyland finished on 163-7. It was a similar result at Sandy Lane where Leyland Motors scored 148 with Atif Ashraf making 48 and Chris Roe taking 4-31 for Chorley. Mark Richardson then made 50 not out and new skipper Michael Critchley 43 as Chorley finished on 139-6. Preston batted first at West Cliff and made a modest 143-6 with Paul Mann making 43, Lukman Vahaluwala 34 and Pip McDonald 26 as Grahame Barnes took 4-56 for Lancaster who then went on to make 135-5 as Lee Sparks made a top score of 28, Yasim Bari made 27, Luke Phillips 24 and Jamie Heywood 23 as the visitors closed on 135-5. It was at Broadwater where the other top score was made as Darwen totalled 234-4 with Chris Clarke making his first senior century with 103 and Keith Semple keeping up his good form with 81 as substitute professional Australian Adam Griffiths took 3-62 (Doug Watson is out for the season with a broken finger sustained at Darwen in the Lancashire Cup last weekend). Fleetwood made a brave effort to win the game but finished six runs short on 228-8 with John Wright making 80 and Adam Sharrocks 73 but only Andrew Clough of the rest reached double figures with 17 as Neil Cordingley took 4-52. Unfortunately Fleetwood's Rob Clark pulled a hamstring and will be out for some weeks. Scores in brief (home sides in bold): Blackpool 202-6 (Kreusch 98, Reddy 56), Barrow 154 (Lewis 92, Croft 7-30) Blackpool 15 points, Barrow 2 points Darwen 234-4 (Clark 103, Semple 81), Fleetwood 228-8 (Wright 80, Sharrocks 73, Cordingley N 4-52) Darwen 9 points, Fleetwood 4 points Leyland Motors 148 (Ashraf 48, Roe 4-31), Chorley 139-6 (Richardson 50*, Critchley 43) Leyland Motors 6 points, Chorley 4 points Morecambe 234-8 (Orchard 95, Maketa 43), Leyland 163-7 (Parker 55) Morecambe 9 points, Leyland 5 points Preston 143-6 (Mann 43, Barnes 4-56), Lancaster 135-5 Preston 6 points, Lancaster 2 points Kendal 173 (Ullah 42, Hunte 42, Harwood 6-58), St Annes 158 (Bradley 59*, Howarth 6-75, Khan 4-65) Kendal 15 points, St Annes 4 points SURRIDGE NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division One Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts St Annes 18 3 9 3 1 1 1 18 188 Netherfield 17 2 5 5 1 2 2 31 148* Blackpool 18 3 3 3 3 3 3 30 138 Morecambe 17 3 3 4 2 3 2 25 132 Fleetwood 18 3 3 2 2 5 3 23 126 Darwen 18 1 5 2 3 3 3 24 122 Kendal 17 4 1 1 2 6 3 30 120 Barrow 18 1 4 1 2 7 3 25 106 Chorley 18 3 0 2 5 5 3 31 99* Leyland 17 1 3 1 4 5 3 21 92 Preston 18 1 1 4 2 7 3 33 83*** Leyland Motors 17 1 1 2 2 9 2 33 78 Lancaster 17 1 2 0 1 10 3 19 71 * 2 points deducted for Slow Over Rate *** two points deducted for slow over rate on two occasions, three points deducted for slow over rate once As well as the first team losing, St Annes Second XI lost their first game of the season as Kendal overtook their 194-5 declared with 195-5 to which Mohammad Yasim contributed a very quick-fire 91 after David Bartholomew contributed a top score of 76 not out for St Annes. The day's bowling honours went to Blackpool's Ross Parker who took 6-36 but still saw his side lose by 16 runs as Barrow totalled 129 and then bowled Blackpool out for 113. Second Division scores in brief (homes sides in bold): Barrow 129 (Miller 56, Parker 6-36), Blackpool 113 Barrow 15 points, Blackpool 3 points Chorley 191-5 (Fazackerley 57, Millwood 42), Leyland Motors 133-6 (Reece 56) Chorley 8 points, Leyland Motors 2 points Darwen 154 (Whiteside 5-17), Fleetwood 156-8 (Singleton 43) Darwen 3 points, Fleetwood 12 points St Annes 194-5 (Bartholomew 76*, Taylor Adam 55), Kendal 195-5 (Yasim 91, Williams 64*) St Annes 4 points, Kendal 12 points Lancaster 135 (Sparrow 45), Preston 136-3 Lancaster 0 points, Preston 12 points Morecambe 137 (Maje 51, Wilson 4-6), Leyland 43-3 Morecambe 4points, Leyland 4points SURRIDGE NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division Two Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts St Annes 18 2 9 1 2 1 3 15 171 Barrow 18 5 4 3 1 3 2 27 171 Netherfield 17 8 1 2 1 3 2 21 170 Fleetwood 18 3 7 0 2 4 2 21 160 Chorley 18 2 5 2 2 4 3 24 136 Morecambe 17 1 6 4 0 4 2 24 135 Darwen 17 1 5 2 2 5 1 28 117 Blackpool 18 2 1 3* 0 9 3 39 106 Preston 18 3 3 0 1 8 3 9 103 Leyland 17 2 2 1* 2 7 3 18 91 Leyland Motors 17 0 4 2 3 7 1 27 90 Kendal 17 3 1 0 1 11 1 20 82 Lancaster 16 0 0 0 1 12 2 16 25 * Includes 5 points for a Tie MATCH ACTION ULLAH'S EXPLOSIVE START AND LATE FLURRY VITAL FOR KENDAL Kendal 173, St Annes 158 By Gerry Wolstenholme Kendal upset the odds at Vernon Road on Saturday when they inflicted a first defeat of the season on runaway leaders St Annes. Put in to bat Kendal's Ikram Ullah made one of the most explosive starts seen in the Northern Premier League for many a long day. He very quickly rattled up 42 and with Terry Hunte matching his score, Kendal eventually reached 173 all out with the help of 51 runs for the last two wickets. St Annes were very quickly in trouble and capitulated to 3-3 and 27-5 before finally being bowled out for 158 to lose by 15 runs with Kevin Howarth and Kabir Khan sharing the St Annes wickets. When Ullah went to the crease he set the tone from the first ball when he flicked Shane Harwood to fine leg for four. He followed this with a hooked six off the third ball and with two, two, one from the final three balls he ended the first over 15 not out. He continued his all-out attack and struck three absolutely glorious cover drives to the boundary off Harwood whose first four overs cost 35 runs. Harwood eventually gained his revenge when Ullah got an inside edge onto his stumps when he had made a scintillating 42 from just 28 balls with one six and six fours and Kendal, who had by then lost Simon Little, also bowled by Harwood for eight, were 56-2. Harwood bowled youngster Michael Raikes for nought without addition to the total and then he had Kabir Khan caught by Joe Davies off a weak shot to short extra cover for five and it was 72-4. Kevin Howarth made 14 before Harwood caught him at slip off Ian Austin at 98-5. Meanwhile Terry Hunte had been carefully building his innings but when he had advanced to 42 he flashed at a wide ball from Davies and Austin held a juggling catch at slip and that was 112-6. Dave Fallows hit one boundary and then drove tamely to Dave Taylor at mid-off and Harwood had his fifth wicket at 119-7. He then bowled Jamie Rafferty for three at 122-8 and Kendal looked as though they would not reach 150. However Damien Gudgeon, 20, Stuart Parkin, 22 not out, and Chris Miller, nine, saw them through to a defendable 173 on a track that had quite a tinge of green on it. Gudgeon defended stoutly until he gently lofted Dave Taylor to Russ Bradley at mid-on at 150-9 and then Parkin and Miller added what turned out to be a vital 23 runs for the last wicket before Miller edged Austin to wicketkeeper Duncan Whalley and Kendal were dismissed for 173 with Harwood taking 6-58, Austin 2-13, Davies 1-24 and Taylor 1-17. During the tea interval the Kendal players felt that perhaps they had enough to win and when the first three St Annes wickets had gone down for the same amount of runs, it looked likely. Adrian Darlington lofted Khan weakly to Raikes at mid-on when he had made two, Gareth Evans edged Howarth to wicketkeeper Gudgeon and next ball Harwood was yorked. Twist and Austin took the total to 18 before Khan bowled the former for two and when Howarth bowled Austin for 10, St Annes were in deep trouble at 27-5. Bradley and Davies then set about rebuilding the innings but matters could have got far worse for their side as, after Davies drove a boundary down the ground, Ullah dropped him at slip from the next ball. He profited from his life and the pair added 54 runs for the sixth wicket. Then, in the over before drinks were due, Davies played a loose shot to hole out to Khan at extra cover off Howarth and he had gone for 31 at 81-6. Whalley, a most valuable player at number eight, helped Bradley, who was dropped by Little at slip on 16, to add a further 57 runs for the seventh wicket with Bradley playing some glorious shots, particularly through extra cover. But when Whalley had made 18 Khan bowled him and it was 138-7. A limping Adam Cotton had Evans as a runner but he only made one before he was leg before wicket to Howarth for one and it was 143-8. Dave Taylor, who had not had a bat since last September, looked sound and helped Bradley take the total to 155 before he fell leg before wicket to Khan for six. In came last man Michael Baer with 19 needed for victory. He survived 11 balls while Bradley managed to score a further three runs, but from his 12th he was bowled by Howarth and St Annes, all out for 158, had lost by 15 runs. Bradley made a fine 59 not out from 107 balls with eight fours and Howarth had taken 6-75 from 20.4 overs and Khan had 4-65 from 23 overs. Kevin Howarth commented, "I always thought we were in with a chance as it was not an easy pitch on which to bat. 'Ikky' gave us a superb start, the last two wickets added valuable runs and then we got their top order out cheaply. Russ Bradley played well to put them in with a chance but thankfully we came out on top in the end." While the defeat has dented St Annes pride and prevents them from winning the title undefeated as their 1952 predecessors had done, it should not hamper their progress too much as their commanding 40-point lead remains. Ikram Ullah leaves the field after making a qucikfire 42 St Annes bowler Stephen Twist draws a forward defensive stroke St Annes Professional Shane Harwood bowls to Kendal's Professional Kabir Khan Kendal's Terry Hunte takes a quick run St Annes President Brian Standing making his point. The scorers David Sykes of Kendal (on left) and Mel Cronshaw of St Annes enter their final enteries Kevin Howarth smiling after taking 6-75

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