Match Day 29th July 2006 and Cup Semi- Final Kendal v Blackpool LEADERS LOSE HEAVILY By Gerry Wolstenholme Leaders Morecambe came down to earth with a bang on Saturday when they lost by seven wickets to second-placed Darwen. Rain chopped seven overs from the Morecambe innings but they could only crawl to 88 all out in 43 overs with skipper Mark Lomas doing a sterling job with 34 not out. Thereafter extras with 17 was the next best contribution while Mark Woodhead was the only other batsman in double figures with 12. Keith Semple led the bowling with 5-24, Andrew Mercer took 2-6 from 10 overs and Neil Cordingley 2-11. Darwen lost Chris Clarke to a run out for six but then only two wickets for Gareth Peddar, for 26 runs, were any consolation to Morecambe as Atif Ashraf made 46 not out and Chris Lowe was there at the end with 11 not out. Netherfield meanwhile could not finish off Carnforth who held on with 143-9 in reply to Netherfield's 207-8. Pierre de Bruyn top scored for Netherfield with 84, Chris Parry made 41 and the best of the rest was Craig Walmsley's 19 as Graham Wilson took 3-53 and Adam Cowperthwaite 2-38. For Carnforth Ryan Nelson made 30, Robert Parker 28 not out and Nishit Shetty 26 as Peter Lawson took 5-70, Stuart Nixon 2-62 and Marc Hadwin 2-11. Chorley defeated Barrow at Windsor Park by five wickets as they dismissed the visitors for just 109 with Stephen John taking 7-49 and the bulk of the Barrow runs coming from numbers seven, eight and nine as Greg Reynolds made 30, Dan Myles 21 and Glen Kermode 11 with only Todd Bamber of the top order reaching double figures with 14. Although Ahmed Amla took 3-52 and Wayne Platts 2-21, Chorley won comfortable thanks to 44 from Craig Millward and 36 from Jack Catterall with skipper Michael Critchley there at the end with 11 not out. At Broadwater Fleetwood and Leyland Motors played out a draw with Motors making 207-9 and Fleetwood replying with 199-6. It was a batsman's day in the main with Ameer Khan scoring another century for Motors, this time 107 not out, and Mohammad Faroukh replying in kind with 106 not out for Fleetwood, for whom John Wright made 65. The supporting roles came from Andrew Makinson, 33, and Tom Reece, 17, for Motors and for Fleetwood extras and Steve Hill both made seven. Kendal defeated a lack-lustre Preston comfortably at Shap Road after they had made 191-1. Preston batted very poorly and were bowled out for just 66 to lose by 125 runs in a rain-affected game. Ikram Ullah went early for Kendal and this left Kevin Howarth, 94 not out, and Terry Hunte 89 not out to take Kendal to their 191. In the course of his innings, Terry Hunte broke the league aggregate record of over 15,000 runs held by Bob Entwistle. Kabir Khan then destroyed Preston with 5-17 as only Yasin Patel, 12, Ben Harrison, 11, and Lukman Vahaluwala, 10, reached double figures. Lancaster continued their good season with a win over Leyland who were restricted to 148-4 in 39 overs. Sean Dunk made 40, David Fisher 31, Alex Mercer 27 and Adam Parker 20 while Iain Burstow and Jannisar Khan both took two wickets, the former for four runs, the latter for 47 runs. Lancaster replied with 149-2 for an eight-wicket victory, two early wickets being lost, Jamie Heywood for 15, and Khan for 16, before Michael Stevens, 58 not out, and the evergreen Tim Barry, 50 not out, took Lancaster to their target. Finally there was a sterile draw at Stanley Park where rain reduced the contest to one of 33 overs. St Annes, interrupted at 52-1 from 19 overs, went on to make 167-7 with Adrian Darlington making 57 and Justin Kreusch taking 4-62 and Blackpool limped lamentably to 107-3 with Kreusch making 53 not out. First Division scores in brief (home sides in bold): St Annes 167/7 (Darlington 57, Kreusch 4-62), Blackpool 108/3 (Kreusch 53*) St Annes 6 points, Blackpool 4 points Netherfield 199-8 (de Bruyn 84, Parry 41), Carnforth 143-9 (Lawson 5-70) Netherfield 10 points, Carnforth 4 points Barrow 109 (John 7-49), Chorley 112-5 (Millward 44) Barrow 1 point, Chorley 12 points Morecambe 88 (Semple 5-24), Darwen 92-3 (Ashraf 46*) Morecambe 0 points, Darwen 12 points Leyland Motors 207-9 (Ameer Khan 107*), Fleetwood 199-6 (Faroukh 106*, Wright 65) Leyland Motors 8 points, Fleetwood 7 points Kendal 191/1 (Howarth 94*, Hunte 89*), Preston 66 (Khan K 5-17) Kendal 15 points, Preston 0 points Leyland 148-4 (Dunk 40), Lancaster 149-2 (Stevens 58*, Barry 50*) Leyland 1 point, Lancaster 12 points SURRIDGE NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division One Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Morecambe 18 2 10 1 0 3 2 6 168 Darwen 18 1 8 2 2 3 2 26 155 Netherfield 18 3 3 4 2 5 1 41* 144 Lancaster 18 1 6 4 2 3 2 29 142 St Annes 18 0 6 4 2 3 3 38 140 Carnforth 18 0 6 4 2 4 2 39 137 Fleetwood 18 3 4 1 2 6 2 28 135 Preston 18 2 4 3 1 6 2 30 129 Kendal 18 5 1 2 1 7 2 26 130 Blackpool 18 2 3 3 2 5 3 26 118 Leyland Motors 18 1 3 3 2 8 1 27 96 Barrow 18 0 1 3 2 10 2 47 81 Chorley 18 0 3 0 7 6 2 23 74 Leyland & Farington 18 0 0 0 7 9 2 25 40 * 2 points deducted for slow over rate If teams have the same number of points then the team with most wins comes first, if they are equal then it is the number of 15 point wins Second Division scores in brief (homes sides in bold): Chorley 135-7 (Smith 50, Ashworth 40, Walker 6-36), Barrow 136-2 (Allington 64*) Chorley 0 points, Barrow 12 points Lancaster 207-4 (Welbourne 71), Leyland 119 (Gledhill 5-20) Lancaster 15 points, Leyland 0 points Morecambe 155-4 (Akrigg 74), Darwen 91-8 Morecambe 7 points, Darwen 0 points Leyland Motors v Fleetwood - match abandoned, both sides four points Carnforth 156-5 (Russell 84*), Netherfield 159-2 (Goldstein 54) Carnforth 1 point, Netherfield 12 points Preston 98 (Potts 5-27), Kendal 77 (Starkie 6-19) Preston 15 points, Kendal 3 points Blackpool 151-7, St Annes 155-0 (Adam Taylor 82*, Kellett 62*) Blackpool 1 point, St Annes 12 points SURRIDGE NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division Two Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Lancaster 18 6 5 1 1 3 2 12 175 St Annes 18 2 8 2 3 0 3 20 169 Morecambe 18 1 8 5 0 3 1 33 168 Netherfield 18 3 5 3 1 5 1 38 160 Leyland Motors 19 3 5 2 2 4 3 22 149 Fleetwood 18 4 5 1 1 4 3 8 145 Blackpool 19 2 5 1 1 6 4 19 130 Barrow 18 2 1 4 1 8 2 41 108 Chorley 18 0 5 0 1 10 2 25 94 Kendal 18 1 3 2 2 7 2 27 96 Darwen 18 0 3 1 5 7 2 39 92 Carnforth 18 0 6 0 1 11 0 18 91 Preston 18 2 1 2 2 9 2 23 83 Leyland & Farington 18 0 3 0 3 10 1 29* 71 * 2 points deducted for slow over rate If teams have the same number of points then the team with most wins comes first, if they are equal then it is the number of 15 point wins MATCH ACTION A MOST UNINTERESTING DRAW St Annes 167-7, Blackpool 108-3 By Gerry Wolstenholme Admittedly rain interfered with the Blackpool versus St Annes game at Stanley Park on Saturday but the end result was one of boredom as the two sides played out a dull, uninteresting draw. St Annes were put in to bat and were going nicely at 52-1 when rain stopped play after 19 overs. They eventually returned to face a further 14 overs and did very well to reach a respectable 167-7. It rained during the tea interval but Blackpool came out to face 33 overs and they limped lamentably along to 108-3 at the close. Adrian Darlington and Gareth Evans put on 39 for the first wicket for St Annes before Evans edged Justin Kreusch to wicketkeeper David Baker and he was gone for 11. Ian Austin joined Darlington and they had advanced to 52 when the rains came. On the resumption Darlington carried on where he had left off and took the attack to Blackpool as did Austin before Paul Danson, diving at mid-off took a fine catch off Luis Reece and the St Annes captain was on the way back to the pavilion for 34 at 84-2. Duncan Whalley made 13 before in attempting to glide Kreusch to the third-man boundary he too edged to Baker and it was 105-3. Russ Bradley made five before Danson took another diving catch (and muddied himself in the process) at short extra cover off Kreusch and St Annes were 115-4. They then lost the crucial wicket of the peerless Darlington, who had been dropped in the gully by Prash Aga on three, for 57, made from 86 balls with eight fours, when he drove back to Kreusch who took the catch at 134-5. The chase for runs saw Arshad Khan, seven, another victim of a Danson catch, this time at extra cover off Reece at 138-6 and Adam Cotton, 10, caught and bowled by Reece as he drove fiercely back at the bowler, who for self preservation had to hold the catch and that was 160-7. Joe Davies, who sadly for St Annes lost the strike for the final four balls of the innings, made 18 not out and John Musgrave four not out as St Annes closed on 167-7 with Kreusch taking 4-62 and Reece 3-45. Before the innings started Blackpool skipper Danson felt that with a five an over run chase Blackpool were definitely in with a chance. But it was not to be. They lost Charles Boucher, 15, leg before wicket to Austin at 26 and David Newton, 12 and completely bamboozled by Michael Baer who had him stumped by Whalley at 47-2. And then at the end of the 19th over Blackpool were 52-2, level on runs and just one wicket worse off than St Annes at the same stage. Sadly the game degenerated from then on in as, in fairness Baer and to a lesser extent Khan, tied the Blackpool batsmen down. But no discernable effort was made to chase the runs and St Annes, seeing that this was the case, left the field well spread so that the game drifted to an aimless draw with Blackpool 108-3. The statistics of it all were that Reece fell leg before wicket to Khan for 22 at 107 and Kreusch ended 53 not out from 69 balls with five fours with Chris Taylor nought not out. There was one wicket for Austin, for 17 runs while Baer and Khan both bowled 10 overs, the former for a 1-31 return and the latter for 1-26. But overall it might have been better if the rain that fell at the tea break had continued and saved the few spectators that remained the agony of watching it all unfold so morbidly. Gareth Evans of St Annes plays Mike Taylor through mid-wicket Adrian Darlington plays Justin Kreusch to the onside and takes a quick run Luis Reece of Blackpool Justin Kreusch drives Joe Davies through the offside >Blackpool take a single Justin Kreusch on the defensive against Ashard Khan BLACKPOOL RETAIN A HOLD ON THE THWAITES CUP Blackpool 226-4, Kendal 183 By Gerry Wolstenholme At Shap Road on Sunday Blackpool kept up their chase to retain the Thwaites Cup with a splendid 43-run victory over Kendal who won the toss and put Blackpool in to bat. Blackpool responded with 226-4, which when Steven Croft and Justin Kreusch were at the wicket could have been much more, and then, after looking down and out with Kendal scoring rapidly early in their innings, bowled Kendal out for 183 for the win. Charles Boucher and Croft put on 42 in 10 overs for Blackpool's first wicket before the former, 14, chased a wide ball from Stuart Parkin and edged to Ikram Ullah behind the stumps. Then followed an excellent partnership of 81 in 14 overs between Croft and Kreusch, both of whom peppered the boundary with some sweetly timed shots. The partnership was broken when Kreusch got a lifting ball from the returning Kevin Howarth, who had unluckily had Croft dropped by Ben Simm on 19 at mid-on, and he was gone for 45 with six fours. Chris Taylor was then dropped by the unfortunate Simm at mid-wicket off Howarth before he ran himself out going for a single but Ullah ran from behind the stumps and threw down the bowler's end stumps. Taylor made two and Blackpool were 128-3. Paul Danson came in and gave the innings the impetus it needed as he scored a rapid 27 in a 49-run partnership with Croft, who was missed from a caught and bowled chance to Dilawar Khan on 81. Danson fell to Dilawar Khan when Chris Miller held a catch at long-off and Blackpool were 177-4. Croft moved smoothly to his century and with Michael Moore providing superb support at the other end Blackpool reached 226-4 from their 40 overs. Moore finished with 22 not out from just 16 balls with one six and two fours while Croft had 109 not out from 125 balls with three sixes and eight fours, many of them fired excitingly through extra cover. Kendal's reply began sensationally. Ullah and Howarth, in particular, put the Blackpool bowlers, Croft and Michael Taylor to the sword and, with 11 from the first over including a superb square drive and a exquisitely timed drive through mid-on and a two through mid-wicket, all to Howarth, they had 42 runs on the board by the sixth over. Howarth had made 29 of them with further boundaries fired through extra cover in the earlier style of Croft before he played across the line to a Michael Taylor Yorker and was gone. Ullah and Terry Hunte carried on the attack and took the total to 79 in the 13th over at which point the game took a significant turn when Boucher caught Hunte on the extra cover boundary off Kreusch for 13. Michael Raikes could not keep the momentum going and after he had made four he was caught behind by David Baker, who had an excellent game, and it was 97-3 in the 17th over. Ullah went on to 51 made from 45 balls with eight fours before he too edged to Baker, this time off Luis Reece and Kendal were slipping at 104-4 and it was 105-5 when David Fallows skied a catch to Kreusch at mid-on off Boucher before he had scored. Kabir Khan and Tony Yasin put on 59 runs in eight overs, mainly due to the hitting of the latter as Khan watched from the other end. The frolics came to an end when Yasin skied to backward point when going for another big hit and David Newton took the catch off Paul Danson. Yasin's 50 had come from 32 balls with 10 fours and Kendal were in terminal decline at 164-6. Simm completed a miserable day when Croft returned to bowl him before he had scored at 165-7 and after a brief flurry he repeated the dose to Kabir Khan for 11 at 169-8 and Dilawar Khan, who had escaped a chance to Chris Taylor at mid-on when two, for eight at 178-9. Miller made four before he went for an impossible single, was sent back and run out and with Parkin, four not out Kendal were 183 all out and dismissed from the Thwaites Cup by a memorable performance from Blackpool for whom Croft took the bowling honours with 3-40. Skipper Paul Danson commented, "I am delighted that we are in the final to defend the trophy. It was a good all-round display with Steven Croft making a magnificent century and runs coming too from Justin Kreusch and Michael Moore. When they got off to a stunning start we had to work hard to keep in the game but we did so and in the end it paid off. The lads were superb and we are aiming to keep hold of our title." Stuart Parkin driven by Blackpool's Charles Boucher Blackpool take a run in the last over Steven Croft after his 109 no League Record holder Terry Hunte goes studiously forward Terry Hunte on the attack

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