By Gerry Wolstenholme
Of the top four sides before the Sunday games started only Morecambe were winners with second placed Darwen, third placed Carnforth and fourth placed Netherfield all losing. Fifth placed St Annes won and moved up to third place while Fleetwood's second win in two days moved them up to sixth.
Morecambe comfortably defeated Kendal at Shap Road as they bowled the home side out for just 153 in which a number of batsmen got a start but none progressed. Dilwar Khan's 29 was the highest score followed by Ikram Ullah's 25, Terry Hunte's 24 and Damien Gudgeon's 22 while Tommy Clough took 3-17 and Gareth Peddar 3-42. Quinton Friend top scored for Morecambe with 49 and with Mark Woodhead 36 not out and Mark Lomas making 24, Morecambe won in a canter by six wickets with 154-4.
Darwen had a dismal day at a gloriously sunny Stanley Park and on a pitch that looked laden with runs. It wasn't as Darwen were bowled out for 132, Keith Semple making 34, Andrew Mercer 25 not out and Chris Lowe 20 as Steven Croft took 4-31. Darwen did capture five Blackpool wickets but the result was never in doubt as Croft, 64 not out saw Blackpool home at 135-5.
Carnforth came a cropper at Fleetwood where the home side posted a useful 213-9 with John Wright back to form with 91, Zac Taylor making 47 and Michael Clinning 48 but no other batsman reached double figures as substitute professional Zeeshan Pervez took 6-60. Only Atiq Uz Zaman made much impression for Carnforth with his 69, the next best effort being 30 from Quasim Ali as Carnforth folded for 164 with Mohammed Faroukh taking 5-11 from seven overs and Tom Blundell taking 3-55.
Netherfield had the shock of their lives at Windsor Park for, declaring at 187-9 after 46 overs, they found themselves losing by six wickets as Chorley knocked off the runs making 188-4 in just 33.3 overs. Pierre de Bruyn made 51, Chris Parry 51, Craig Walmsley 33 and Graeme Dodds 31 in the Netherfield innings as Stephen John led the Chorley attack with 5-47 and there were two wickets each for Sam Sweeney, for 57 runs, and Andy Holdsworth, for 20 runs. Run scorers for Chorley were Craig Millward with 63, John Ratledge with 50 and Stephen John with 39 not out as Peter Lawson took 2-50 with one wicket apiece for de Bruyn and Marc Hadwin.
St Annes were the day's second highest scorers with 268-5 declared to which Ian Austin narrowly missed another century, being dismissed for 91, Russ Bradley made 62 not out, Adrian Darlington 45 and Arshad Khan 29. Chris Kelly's 2-38 was the best the Leyland bowlers could offer. But Leyland held on for 59 overs to earn a draw with 152-7 to which David Fisher and Paul Busby both contributed 27 and Stuart Parker made 25.
Lancaster topped the day with their 280-5 with Jannisar Khan threatening the Bernard Reidy league record with 166 not out and Luke Phillips made 37, Michael Stevens 34 and Tim Barry 28 as Iqbal Liley took 2-37 for Leyland Motors. Ameer Khan then made 117 in Motors' reply but his only support came from Alan Richardson, 18, and Karl Cross, 17, however Motors hung on for a draw with 210-7.
Finally Preston won their fifth game of the season by defeating Barrow by eight wickets, making 156-2 in reply to 154-8. The Barrow innings was held together by Iain Kermode, 66, and Jon Sturgeon, 35, with Robin Adams and Ahmed Alma the next best with 11 each. Lukman Vahaluwala took 6-50 for Preston who then were led to victory by Munaf Bavla with 77 not out. Bilal Asad scored 43 and 'Pip' McDonald was there at the end with 14 not out.
First Division results in brief (home sides in bold):
Darwen 132 (Croft 4-31), Blackpool 134-5 (Croft 64*)
Darwen 1 point, Blackpool 12 points
Netherfield 187-9 dec (de Bruyn 51, Parry 51, John 5-47), Chorley 188-4 (Millward 63, Ratledge 50)
Netherfield 3 points, Chorley 12 points
Fleetwood 213-9 (Wright 94, Clinning 48, Taylor 47, Pervez 6-60), Carnforth 164 (Faroukh 5-11)
Fleetwood 15 points, Carnforth 5 points
Kendal 153, Morecambe 154-4 (Friend 49)
Kendal 1 point, Morecambe 12 points
Lancaster 280-5 (J Khan 166*), Leyland Motors 210-7 (A Khan 117)
Lancaster 9 points, Leyland Motors 5 points
St Annes 268-5 dec (Austin 91, Bradley 62*, Darlington 45), Leyland 152-7 (Khan 5-45)
St Annes 9 points, Leyland 3 points
Barrow 154-8 (Kermode 66, Vahaluwala 6-50), Preston 156-2 (Bavla 77*, Asad 43)
Barrow 1 point, Preston 12 points
SURRIDGE NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE
Division One
| Club |
P |
W15 |
W12 |
D4 |
D1 |
L |
NR4 |
BP |
Pts |
| Morecambe |
16 |
2 |
9 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
6 |
156 |
| Darwen |
16 |
1 |
7 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
21 |
134 |
| St Annes |
16 |
0 |
6 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
32 |
130 |
| Carnforth |
16 |
0 |
6 |
4 |
0 |
4 |
2 |
33 |
129 |
| Netherfield |
16 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
1 |
30* |
125 |
| Fleetwood |
16 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
6 |
2 |
16 |
121 |
| Lancaster |
16 |
1 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
29 |
118 |
| Preston |
16 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
5 |
2 |
30 |
117 |
| Blackpool |
16 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
4 |
3 |
21 |
112 |
| Kendal |
16 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
7 |
2 |
26 |
103 |
| Leyland Motors |
16 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
8 |
1 |
19 |
80 |
| Barrow |
16 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
8 |
2 |
43 |
77 |
| Chorley |
16 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
6 |
6 |
2 |
20 |
58 |
| Leyland & Farington |
16 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
7 |
2 |
20 |
35 |
* 2 points deducted for slow over rate
John Whalley and Chris Stanhope of Fleetwood were two of the day's centurions with 169 and 127 respectively in a high-scoring game at Carnforth where Fleetwood made 355-5 and the third centurion came when Carnforth replied with 330 to lose by 25 runs as Tom Barnfield made 128. Chris Stanhope also took 4-34.
On a day that favoured batsmen, Stephen Cartwright of Leyland Motors had the best bowling figures with 6-40 that helped bowl Lancaster out for 131 in reply to Motors total of 164.
Second Division results in brief (home sides in bold):
Barrow 177 (Astle 48, Veersamy 42, Starkie 5-64), Preston 101-9
Barrow 9 points, Preston 4 points
Fleetwood 355-5 (Whalley 169, Stanhope 127), Carnforth 330 (Barnfield 127, Tomlinson 47, Russell 42, Stanhope 4-34)
Fleetwood 15 points, Carnforth 4 points
Blackpool 194-9 (Penney 62, Reddy 44, Lawrenson 5-40), Darwen 73 (Parker 5-6)
Blackpool 15 points, Darwen 3 points
Leyland Motors 164, Lancaster 131 (Welbourne 51, Cartwright 6-40)
Leyland Motors 15 points, Lancaster 3 points
Kendal 81, Morecambe 84-2 (Maje 44)
Kendal 0 points, Morecambe 12 points
Netherfield 284-7 (Huck 83, Goldstein 71, Hill 66*), Chorley 94 (Barton 5-36)
Netherfield 15 points, Chorley 2 points
Leyland 137 (Hurst 5-54), St Annes 139-0 (Kellett 80*, Andy Taylor 55*)
Leyland 0 points, St Annes 12 points
SURRIDGE NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE
Division Two
| Club |
P |
W15 |
W12 |
D4 |
D1 |
L |
NR4 |
BP |
Pts |
| Morecambe |
16 |
1 |
7 |
4 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
30 |
149 |
| Lancaster |
16 |
5 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
12 |
148 |
| St Annes |
16 |
2 |
6 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
3 |
20 |
145 |
| Fleetwood |
16 |
4 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
5 |
138 |
| Leyland Motors |
17 |
3 |
5 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
19 |
138 |
| Netherfield |
16 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
1 |
5 |
1 |
38 |
133 |
| Blackpool |
17 |
2 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
4 |
14 |
125 |
| Barrow |
16 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
1 |
7 |
2 |
41 |
96 |
| Chorley |
16 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
9 |
2 |
23 |
91 |
| Kendal |
16 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
22 |
91 |
| Darwen |
16 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
4 |
6 |
2 |
33 |
85 |
| Carnforth |
16 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
1 |
10 |
0 |
17 |
78 |
| Preston |
16 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
8 |
2 |
18 |
63 |
| Leyland & Farington |
16 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
9 |
1 |
29* |
59 |
* 2 points deducted for slow over rate
MATCH ACTION
DISMAL DARWEN DEMOLISHED
Darwen 132, Blackpool 135-5
Gerry Wolstenholme
It looked like a track made for batsmen at Stanley Park on Sunday but if it was Darwen failed to utilise it and once they were 3-3 inside four overs, they were always going to be struggling to put up a defendable total. In the end, due to an excellent last wicket partnership, they managed to reach a modest 132 but Blackpool comfortably overhauled this with 135-5 to win by five wickets.
The writing was on the wall in the second over when Justin Kreusch bowled Chris Clarke for one at 1-1 and when the prolific Atif Ashraf, one, holed out to Michael Taylor at mid-on when mistiming a pull it was 3-2 and as if that was not bad enough for Darwen Gareth Cordingley got his thumb in the way of his first ball from Kreusch and edged to Paul Danson at slip and it was 3-3.
Keith Semple and Chris Lowe tried valiantly to dig Darwen out of a hole and they put on 51 for the fourth wicket before Semple was adjudged leg before wicket to Luis Reece for 34 made from 63 balls with three fours. Lowe, 20, followed soon afterwards when he played a fierce shot off Croft to backward point where a tumbling Michael Moore took the catch and that was 70-5. Neil Cordingley, two, edged Michael Taylor to a diving Charles Boucher at second slip at 74-6 and when Gary Jackson fell leg before wicket to Croft for 11 it was 80-7.
Croft bowled Yasim Patel for five at 87 and without addition Michael Taylor bowled Josh Clarke for two and 100 looked a distant prospect. But then came some of the most sensible batting of the day from Andrew Mercer and Andrew Cook. They were untroubled and put on 45 quite comfortably until a poor piece of running saw the partnership ended. They tried for a second run but Kreusch hit the stumps from deep mid-on and Cook was run out for 12, which left Mercer undefeated on 25 and Darwen 132 all out. Croft finished with 4-32, Michael Taylor 2-15, Kreusch 2-24 and Reece 1-7 from seven excellent overs.
Blackpool's reply began badly when David Newton fell leg before wicket to Mercer for three at 14-1 but Boucher, 28, and Kreusch, 13, took the total into the 40s before both departed within a run of each other. Boucher edged Semple to Josh Clarke at 46 and at 47 Cook produced a pearl of a ball to bowl Kreusch. And Darwen had a flicker of hope at 98 when Reece, 13, edged Gareth Cordingley's first ball to Josh Clarke but when Chris Taylor fell leg before wicket to Gareth Cordingley Blackpool were closing in on their target at 118-5.
This was particularly so with Croft in imperious form and he was there at the end with 64 not out made from 78 balls with eight thumping fours while Danson was four not out as Blackpool reached 135-5 for victory with 11 overs remaining. Gareth Cordingley took 2-15 and there was one wicket each for Mercer, for 20 runs, Cook, for 22 runs, and Semple, for 26 runs but it was a bad day all round for title chasing Darwen, who held onto second place due to the failure of those around them.
The Darwen batsman lets the ball go from Luis Reece
The scoreboard tells a sorry tale for Darwen.
Justin Kreusch batting for Blackpool
