Match Day 25th August 2007 3D SPORTS NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE ST ANNES GO CLEAR AT THE TOP Gerry Wolstenholme Defeat for Netherfield and victory for St Annes separated the two leading teams that were equal on points at the top of the table before the weekend fixtures. While St Annes took 15 points from their victory over Fleetwood, Netherfield managed only three batting bonus points from a defeat by now second placed Morecambe. St Annes won the toss, batted and made a massive 267-5 before declaring with four overs of their innings remaining. Mansoor Ahmed led the way with 105 not out, Adam Cotton made 72 and Aiden Cotton 48. Kyle Smit made 113 in Fleetwood's reply but the only two other batsmen to reach double figures were James Ellis with 17 and Tom Wilson with 11. The result was that Fleetwood were dismissed for 175 to lose by 92 runs as Michael Baer took 5-36 and Ahmed 4-82. Morecambe made 262-4 against Netherfield and then bowled the Cumbrians out for 214 to achieve victory by 48 runs. For Morecambe Werner Coetsee made 110 not out and Mark Woodhead made 52 while Vishnal Goyal made 29, Gareth Peddar 20 and Mark Lomas 34. Mark Daley was the best of the Netherfield bowlers with 2-97. The bulk of Netherfield's reply came from Ryan Brown, 69, and Craig Walmsley, 51, while Tino Best made 26 as Peddar took 4-32 and Coetsee 3-64. Jannisar Khan made 104 not out, Tim Barry opening the batting, made 45, Michael Walling made 32 and Luke Phillips made 20 in Lancaster's 241-6 as John Denwood took 2-40 and Robert Parker 2-43. In Carnforth's reply of 192, which spelt defeat by 49 runs, there were three batsmen in double figures with Ryan Nelson making 89, Atiq Uz Zaman 52 and Irfan Fazil 16. For Lancaster Walling took 6-61 and Khan 3-71. Preston made only 167-8 in their 50 overs but it was enough for victory by 37 runs as Chorley were dismissed for 130. For Preston Sajid Patel made 31, Pip McDonald 29 and Glenn Johnstone 35 not out from 47 balls while there were two wickets each for Stephen John, for 41 runs, Nigel Eastham, for 41 runs, Keiron McCullough, for 18 runs, and Sam Sweeney, for 21 runs. For Chorley Andrew Holdsworth top scored with 45 and Josh Tolley made 22 as Bilal Asad, who had a rare failure with the bat with 16, took 5-45, Rhys Williams took 3-56 and Jonathan McDonald took 2-4 from three overs. Steve Pallett, 35 not out, batting at number 10, top scored for Leyland as they made 140-9 against Kendal. Ian Farrington made 26 and Peter Cummings 24 as Graeme Aldridge took 2-18, Chris Miller 3-64 and Ben Simm 3-30 for Kendal who then won by six wickets with 143-4. Ikram Ullah made 41 and Kevin Howarth 23, as Terry Hunte, 46 not out, and Aldridge, 19 not out, took Kendal home in 28.5 overs. Ameer Khan took 3-47 for Leyland. It was an exciting game at the Ernest Pass Memorial Ground where Barrow made 187 with Pasan Wanasinghe top scoring with 54 and there were contributions from Justin Quint, 26, and Ian Allington, 21 as Justin Kreusch took 3-56, Paul Danson 3-43 and Luis Reece 2-10. Blackpool's victory was in the balance until skipper Danson struck the penultimate ball of the game for six to win it for Blackpool by four wickets at 191-6. Luis Reece top scored for the Seasiders with 59 while Adam Parker made 37 and the promising Alex Smith 30 as Quint had a good all-round day, apart from the result, with 4-58. First Division scores in brief (home sides in bold): Barrow 187 (Wanasinghe 54), Blackpool 191-6 (Reece, L 59, Quint 4-58) Barrow 4 points, Blackpool 12 points Lancaster 241-6 (Khan 104*, Barry 45), Carnforth 192 (Nelson 89, Uz Zaman 52, Walling 6-61) Lancaster 15 points, Carnforth 4 points Leyland 140-9, Kendal 143-4 (Hunte 46*, Ullah 41) Leyland 1 point, Kendal 12 points Morecambe 262-4 (Woodhead 52, Coetsee 110*), Netherfield 214 (Walmsley 51, Brown 69, Peddar 4-32) Morecambe 15 points, Netherfield 3 points Preston 167-8, Chorley 130 (Holdsworth 45, Asad 5-45) Preston 15 points, Chorley 2 points St Annes 267-5 dec (Ahmed 105*, Cotton, Adam 72, Cotton, Aiden 48), Fleetwood 175 (Smit 113, Baer 5-36, Ahmed 4-82) St Annes 15 points, Fleetwood 3 points * Not Out 3D SPORTS NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division One Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts St Annes 20 4 3 6 1 3 3 40 173 Morecambe 21 2 7 2 2 4 4 28 168 Netherfield 20 2 7 2 1 3 5 18 161 Kendal 21 6 3 1 0 8 3 17 159 Darwen 20 1 7 2 2 1 7 20 157 Leyland 21 3 5 1 0 8 4 22 147 Preston 20 6 0 3 0 8 3 33 147 Lancaster 20 1 6 1 4 5 3 27 134 Barrow 20 1 4 2 3 6 4 37 127 Fleetwood 20 1 4 1 1 8 5 28 116 CARNFORTH 20 2 1 1 4 8 4 37* 103 Chorley 20 1 2 1 1 9 6 30 98 BLACKPOOL 21 1 2 0 4 11 3 42* 97 Teams in BLOCK CAPITALS have had points deducted, * 2 points deducted for slow over rate from the Bonus Points Column There were six wickets each for Stephen Cartwright and Adrian Potts at Shap Road but it was Potts' 6-33 for Kendal that won the day as Cartwright's 6-54 for Leyland was in a losing cause. Matthew Studt had a sensational day for Barrow as his side, at one time looking likely losers, won by 13 runs at Blackpool's Stanley Park. He took a hat-trick to end the game and finished with 5-21. The day's best batting came from Sean Bickerdike of St Annes who made 78 not out as his side cruised home by eight wickets against Fleetwood, whose 114 was never going to be enough. Division Two score in brief (home side in bold): Barrow 182-6 (Sturgeon 46, Mercer 4-57), Blackpool 169 (Taylor, M 47, Studt 5-21) Barrow 15 points, Blackpool 3 points Preston 149 (Hall 44* Hughes 4-35), Chorley 152-9 (Critchley 47, Alam 5-47) Preston 4 points, Chorley 12 points Fleetwood 114 (Thomas 4-29), St Annes 115-2 (Bickerdike 78*) Fleetwood 0 points, St Annes 12 points Kendal 159 (Phillips, N 42, Cartwright 6-54, Cottam 4-31), Leyland 92 (Potts 6-33) Kendal 15 points, Leyland 3 points Carnforth 130, Lancaster 134-6 (Atkinson 49, Baxendale 4-58) Carnforth 1 point, Lancaster 12 points Morecambe 157-9 (Smith 53), Netherfield 157-9 (Quinn 5-72) Morecambe 8 points, Netherfield 5 points * Not Out 3D SPORTS NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division Two Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Lancaster 20 5 8 0 1 3 3 11 195 Morecambe 21 3 6 4 2 4 3 35 178 NETHERFIELD 20 2 9 1 1 2 5 12* 175 St Annes 20 2 6 3 4 3 2 38 164 Chorley 20 2 6 1 2 5 4 31 155 Barrow 20 3 4 1 1 8 3 35 142 Darwen 20 2 4 2 3 5 4 31 136 Blackpool 21 2 3 2 1 9 4 42 133 Leyland 21 3 2 1 2 8 5 32 127 Preston 20 3 2 2 1 7 5 24 122 Kendal 21 4 0 2 1 9 5 21 110 Fleetwood 20 3 1 1 0 11 4 21 98 Carnforth 20 0 3 0 0 14 3 38 86 Teams in BLOCK CAPITALS have had points deducted, * 2 points deducted for slow over rate from the Bonus Points Column MATCH ACTION PROFESSIONALS' CENTURIES BRING CONTRASTING FORTUNES St Annes 267 - 5 dec, Fleetwood 175 By Gerry Wolstenholme Both professionals in the match at Vernon Road on Saturday scored centuries but they brought contrasting fortunes to their sides. St Annes' Mansoor Ahmed made 105 not out while Fleetwood's Kyle Smit made 113 but Ahmed's effort was in a total of 267-5 declared while Smit provided almost 65% of Fleetwood's total of 175, which meant that they lost a game that on two occasions they looked as though they were in control by 92 runs. Ahmed was at the crease when St Annes subsided to 31-3 after Gareth Evans made a slight misjudgement to Tom Blundell, offered no stroke and was bowled for four at 22-1, Ian Austin, one, drove Smit to Adam Breakell at mid-off and after a heart-stopping juggling act he held on at 23-2 and then Adrian Darlington, 20, was superbly caught by Tom Wilson at square leg off Blundell and that was 31-3. Aiden Cotton and Ahmed then put together a fine partnership of 105 before the former, in sight of his initial first team half-century, dashed down the track to an extremely slow ball from Nick Coultas and almost had time to get back to his crease, but didn't, before James Ellis stumped him for 48 made from 62 balls with six fours. Adam Cotton then came to the crease and with some savage blows began to rapidly catch up Ahmed, who was no slouch himself. Adam Cotton, dropped off a difficult chance at deep mid-wicket by Breakell in Pat King's first over, raced to 72 from 50 balls with eight fours and four sixes before Breakell made amends and held him at deep mid-off from the bowling of King, who had been called into the team very late after just arriving back from the continent. Ahmed, uncharacteristically dropped by John Wright on 55 in Pat King's first over, went on to reach 105 from 107 balls with 11 fours and one six and with Adam Taylor one not out, St Annes declared at 267-5 from 46 overs. Blundell was the most successful bowled with 2-69, Coultas had 1-23, King 1-59 and Smit, who bowled the only four maiden overs of the innings, 1-67. Fleetwood's reply began with a maiden over before Smit took three boundaries off Dave Taylor's opening over with two straight drives and one through extra cover. He repeated the dose in Taylor's second over but this time his two extra cover drives were accompanied by one pulled to the square leg boundary. He had quietened down by Taylor's third over when he drove only one boundary and by then he had lost Coultas who fatally played back to Austin, the ball nipping through and bowling him for a duck at 25-1. Ellis provided some support for Smit, who continued to deal mainly in boundaries until Ahmed and Baer were introduced into the attack and the scoring slowed. Fifty arrived in the eighth over and 100 in the 17th and it had got to 110-1 and Fleetwood looking as though they were going to give it a real go to overhaul the St Annes' total when Ahmed trapped Ellis leg before wicket for 17. His 40-ball innings was to be the only noticeable support that Smit was to receive for the middle order, Wilson apart who survived 34 balls, failed to last more than seven balls each as three more wickets went down as the total limped to 116. Wayne Clarke, one from seven balls, was adjudged to have edged to Duncan Whalley behind the stumps off Baer at 113-3, Steve Metcalfe, a five-ball duck, was leg before to Ahmed's well disguised quicker ball at 115-4, and John Wright repeated Evans' earlier misdemeanour, played no stroke and was bowled by Baer, also for a five-ball duck. Wilson at least then provided Smit with some useful support and with the professional firing away at one end, Fleetwood were still in with a chance. The pair had added 39 runs when Wilson, 11, found a ball from Baer leaping unexpectedly at him and he could only get an edge to Whalley and it was 155-6. Breakell, the last of the recognised batsmen, lasted three balls before he rashly dashed down the track to Ahmed to present Whalley with one of his easiest stumpings and he had gone for nought at 156-7. And it was 157-8 when Joe Bell, after surviving five balls, was bowled by Baer for nought from his sixth. By then Smit's 18th boundary had brought him an exhilarating century but, dropped by Darlington at long-on on 108, he added only one further boundary when, on 113 from 93 balls, he essayed a reverse sweep once too often and looped a simple catch to Darlington from the bowling of Ahmed. King and Blundell then, surprisingly in view of the total, put together the fourth highest partnership of the innings, 18, for the last wicket. It all ended (in tears!) with Blundell, five, being caught by Evans at backward point off Baer and with King, seven not out, including one lofted boundary through long-on, Fleetwood were all out for 175 and had lost by 92 runs. St Annes gamble of winning the toss and batting, something of a rarity these days in the Northern Premier League, brought the reward of 15 points to maintain their strong challenge for the title.

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