By Gerry Wolstenholme
The new side in the Surridge Northern Premier Cricket League turned out to be the day's top scorers in the First Division but that feat could not earn them a first win as Chorley held on for a draw with their last pair at the wicket.
Batting first Carnforth made 192 to which Chorley replied with 144-9. For Carnforth it was runs from the late order that enabled them to reach their total as Lewis Bradley made 34, Ben Harrison 33 and A Hornby 27 while Bill Smith took 4-54, Gaurav Dhar 3-39 and Stephen John 2-57 for Chorley. John then made a top score of 36, Jack Catterall 31 and Ian Mawdesley 31 as Chorley earned the draw.
Blackpool had an easy win at Stanley Park against Kendal who were put in to bat and managed a modest 148-4 with youngster Oliver Killiner top scoring with 31 as Mike Taylor led the bowling with 2-7 from six overs. Blackpool tottered at 34-3 but then a stand of 98 by stand-in professional Ruvin Peires, who scored a magnificent, chanceless 82 not out, and Mike Taylor, who made an excellent 45, took Blackpool to the verge of victory that they achieved by six wickets at 148-4.
Neil Cordingley, 4-10, and Andrew Mercer, 4-27, destroyed Leyland for 82 of which the battling Charlie Williams made 36 not out and Steve Pallett 19 but only Sean Dunk of the rest, with 12, reached double figures. And then Darwen's new professional Atif Ashraf made victory a formality with 62 not out, including 10 fours, from Darwen's winning 86-1. Chris Clarke was the wicket to fall, run out for 22.
Fleetwood crashed to 113 all out with Michael Dewhurst making 29 and Paul Harris 27 but the best of the rest was Michael Clinning's 16. Lancaster's new skipper Tim Barry took 5-31 and Graham Barnes had 4-35. But it was not plain sailing for Lancaster as Fleetwood fought back. However, Lancaster's substitute professional Pawez made 45 and Barry 25 before a six from the penultimate ball won the game for Lancaster. The returning Zac Taylor took 4-31, Harris 2-40 from 20.5 overs and Steve Hill 1-6 from nine overs as Lancaster reached 118-8 to scrape home by two wickets.
Barrow's substitute professional Nick van Woerkom was top scorer for them as he made 73 from their 160 but the next best was 26 from John Miles and 13 from Daryl Wearing who then took 4-34 as Morecambe won by three wickets with 164-7. Nick Van Woerkom took 2-41 but 37 from Vishnal Goyol, 36 not out from Phil Dennison and 26 from Phil Thornton helped Morecambe to their target.
Netherfield's new captain Scott Clement had a winning start against Preston who were dismissed for just 96 with new professional Bilal Asad top scoring with 32 and Lukman Vahaluwala making 23 but then only Johnny Winter with 10 and extras with 13 reached double figures. Netherfield's new Australian professional Dirk Nannes took 3-14 and other wickets were taken by Peter Lawson with 2-42, Stuart Nixon with 2-10 and Marc Hadwin with 2-9. Craig Walmsley then blasted 54 not out and Grahame Clarke 37 not out as Netherfield cruised home by eight wickets with 100-2.
St Annes won comfortably by six wickets at Leyland Motors where the home side took 48.1 overs to make 106 with 20 from Tom Reece the top score and 15 from Peter Cummings the next best. Stand-in professional Asif Mujtaba took 4-28 and Michael Baer 3-30. St Annes cruised home in 39 overs despite substitute professional Raouf Akbar bowling 14 overs for only 21 runs and two wickets. Mujtaba made it a good all-round day with 45 and Gareth Evans made 37 not out as St Annes won by six wickets with 107-4.
First Division results (home side in bold):
Kendal 147-8, Blackpool 148-4 (Peiris 82*, Taylor M 45)
Kendal 1 point, Blackpool 12 points
Carnforth 192 (Smith B 4-54), Chorley 144-9
Carnforth 10 points, Chorley 5 points
Leyland 82 (Mercer 4-10, Cordingley N 4-27), Darwen 86-1 (Ashraf 62*)
Leyland 0 points, Darwen 12 points
Fleetwood 113 (Barry 5-31, Barnes 4-35), Lancaster 118-8 (Pawez 45, Taylor 4-21)
Fleetwood 2 points, Lancaster 12 points
Leyland Motors 106, St Annes 107-4 (Mujtaba 45)
Leyland Motors 0 points, St Annes 12 points
Barrow 160 (van Woerkom 73, Orchard 4-25, Pedder 4-47), Morecambe 164-7 (Wearing 4-34)
Barrow 4 points, Morecambe 12 points
Preston 96, Netherfield 100-2 (Walmsley 54*)
Preston 0 points, Netherfield 12 points
In the Second Division it was like a blast from the past as David Newton returned to Blackpool and made 75 not out as his side beat Kendal, 166-6, by seven wickets with 170-3.
Another Blackpool old boy David Bartholomew was among the wickets for St Annes as he took 5-30 in the draw with Leyland Motors.
Division Two results (home side in bold):
Barrow 143/7, Morecambe 63 (Riley 4-14)
Barrow 15 points, Morecambe 2 points
Carnforth 129 (Koz 4-19), Chorley 131-6 (Barnfield 40)
Carnforth 1 point, Chorley 12 points
Kendal 166-6, Blackpool 170-3 (Newton 75*)
Kendal 2 points, Blackpool 12 points
Lancaster 125 (Breakell 4-34), Fleetwood 126-8 (Emsley 47)
Lancaster 2 points, Fleetwood 12 points
Darwen 121-9 (Heys 54, Jackson 41, Mick Brown 5-29), Leyland 122-6 (Hatton 61*)
Darwen 1 point, Leyland 12 points
Preston 82, Netherfield 83-2
Preston 0 points, Netherfield 12 points
St Annes 223-7 (Kellett 77, Bradley N 41), Leyland Motors 188-7 (Royle 65, Totham 51, Bartholomew 5-30)
St Annes 9 points, Leyland Motors 7 points
MATCH ACTION
BLACKPOOL WIN IN A CANTER
Kendal 147-8, Blackpool 148-4
Gerry Wolstenholme
Kendal were always behind the game at Stanley Park on Saturday from the moment Paul Danson won the toss and put them in to bat. They made a poor start, effected a slight recovery led by youngster Oliver Killiner, but then faded and totalled just 147-8 from their 50 overs. Blackpool did lose three early wickets and there were warning signs but then solid batting by substitute professional Ruvin Peiris and Mike Taylor and some ineffective bowling by Kendal took them to the brink of victory that was subsequently achieved by six wickets at 148-4.
Ahmed Elech and substitute professional Aslam Qureshi opened for Kendal against the Taylor brothers, Chris and Mike, and they had advanced the total slowly to 20 when the professional played a lazy shot to Mike Taylor and Steven Croft at second slip picked up the catch. Disaster quickly followed as the prolific Terry Hunte went without scoring as he tried to pull Mike Taylor only to find the ball on him too quickly and he got a top edge and skied a catch that a diving wicketkeeper James Smith took and that was 24-2.
Elech, going in fits and starts, had got to 24 and was looking well set when he tried to pull a ball from Louis Reece but got no power on the shot and Danson at square leg held an easy catch and three wickets were down for 39. Then came a promising stand of 48 by Oliver Killiner and Tony Yasin that ended when the latter tried to drive Croft only to drag the ball onto his stumps with his score on 26 and the total on 87. From the next ball Khan was leg before wicket so it was 87-5. Kevin Howarth prevented the hat-trick but when the total had reached 110 he was unable to do anything about the run out of Killiner, who had just plundered two fours in successive balls. Then he decided that there was a run as the ball went from Howarth's pad to backward short leg. Howarth was unable to get into stride and sent him back but he was unable to make his ground as the throw beat him to the bowler's end stumps. He had gone for a top score of 31 made from 76 balls in 100 minutes of concentrated batting.
Howarth rattled on to 29 and was then leg before wicket to left arm spinner Peiris at 146-7 and Wasir Olam was run out for one from the final ball of the innings and with Damian Gudgeon 14 not out, Kendal closed on 147-8, probably 40 or 50 runs fewer than they should have had to make a game of it. Wickets for Blackpool were taken by Mike Taylor 2-7, Peiris, who bowled economically and did not concede a boundary in his 19 overs, 1-44, Reece 1-25 and Croft, who had to leave the field with a slight side strain, 2-16.
Blackpool's reply began badly as Charles Boucher drove at Khan and was caught by Gudgeon for two with the total on three. Jamie Reddy and Peiris took the total to 32 at which point Reddy was run out by Qureshi for four. Michael Moore was then leg before wicket to Khan from the first ball he received and it was 34-3 but that was the end of Blackpool's alarms as the Kendal lost the imitative.
Peiris and Mike Taylor scored runs with relative ease and there was only one alarm when Taylor, on 22, drove loosely to extra cover where Chris Miller put down the catch. This spurredthe batsmen on and they rushed to 130 before Taylor, 45 with three fours, skied Stuart Nelson to Olam at mid-on to give the youngster his first senior wicket. But this just brought in Croft who had made four not out when Peiris nonchalantly tucked away a single to take him to 82 not out made from 100 balls with nine fours and Blackpool to a six-wicket victory at 148-4 with 13.3 overs remaining. For Kendal Khan had 1-26, Howarth 1-18 and Nelson 1-13 but it was all Blackpool's day at Stanley Park.
Captains Paul Danson and Kabir Khan in deep discussion
Paul Danson leads out the Blackpool side
Professional Aslam Qureshi and Ahmed Elech open the batting for Kendal
Blackpool's Sub Professional Ruvin Peiris who made a fine 82 no
