Match Day 1st September 2007
3D SPORTS NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE
MORECAMBE GO TO THE TOP -
BUT DARWEN ARE LURKING IN THE WINGS
Gerry Wolstenholme
A comprehensive victory over Fleetwood that was completed by 4-10pm gave Morecambe the leadership of the Northern Premier League table but once news came through of Chorley's demise for 87 against overnight leaders St Annes it was assumed it would only be for a few hours on Saturday. That was not the case as Chorley pulled off a sensational victory at Windsor Park that dropped St Annes into second place so Morecambe now have a seven point lead but, unfortunately for them, they have only one game to play against the two of the other challengers, of whom Darwen look most dangerous, this because Netherfield and St Annes meet in the final game.
At Windsor Park Chorley were dismissed for 87 in 34.2 overs but then fought back magnificently to bowl out St Annes for 70 in 22.1 overs and win by 17 runs. As the scores suggests, it was a bowlers' day and Michael Baer took 5-23 and Stephen Twist 3-13 for St Annes while Stephen John took 4-19 and Bill Smith 4-31 for Chorley. Batting-wise there was little to report, John made a top score of 38 and Will Moulton made 19 for Chorley while Gareth Evans, ninth out, made 25 for St Annes but John Musgrave was the only other batsman to reach double figures with 14.
Morecambe meanwhile made easy pickings of Fleetwood by bowling them out for 100 thanks to 8-59 from Jono Gates with only John Wright and Tom Wilson, both of whom made 27, making much headway. Mark Woodhead then struck a belligerent 59 not out to take his side to victory by eight wickets at 101-2.
Darwen meanwhile stepped up their title challenge at Parkside Road and, batting first, made a massive 279-2 with Atif Ashraf making 144 not out and Keith Semple making 106 as Scott Clement, back from injury, took both wickets to fall for 82 runs. Netherfield made a bold attempt to reach their target but fell 30 runs short and had to settle for a draw with 250-7 with Chris Parry making 115, substitute professional Williams making 42, Simon Little making 39 and Craig Walmsley making 34. Ashraf, on as the sixth bowler, made it an excellent all-round day by taking 5-37.
Missing a game next week, Kendal did the best they could and picked up 15 points by beating Barrow by 20 runs at Shap Road. Kendal made 148 with Ikram Ullah 29, Ben Simm 25, Terry Hunte 24 and Stuart Parkin 22 as Pasan Wanasinghe took 5-57 and Daryl Wearing 3-52. Barrow were then dismissed for 128 in 48 overs with Jonathan Miles making 42, Iain Kermode making 25 not out, Wearing making 21. Ullah took six victims, four caught and two stumped, as Graeme Aldridge took 4-46, Parkin 2-32, Tony Yasin 2-19 and Simm 2-20.
At Lune Road Tim Barry, opening the innings, made 50, Jannisar Khan made 55, Jamie Heywood made 27 and Luke Phillips made 19 as Lancaster totalled 196-9. for Preston Rhys Williams took 3-70 and Munaf Bavla 3-26. Preston took 43.1 overs to reach 197-4 and win by six wickets with Sajid Patel making 54, Bilal Asad 56 and Lukman Vahaluwala 42 not out while Michael Walling took 2-58 for Lancaster.
Ameer Khan was in form for Leyland at Fox Lane where he made 72, and Andrew Makinson made 26 as Leyland totalled 176 with Irfan Fazil taking 4-53 and Robert Parker 3-29. Carnforth were then dismissed for 58 in 27.4 overs with Parker making 21, Darren Moore 14 and Fazil 11 but there were five ducks as Carnforth lost by 118 runs. Andrew Makinson took 4-19, David Makinson took 3-4 and Stephen Pallett took 2-20 for Leyland.
First Division scores in brief (home sides in bold):
Chorley 87 (Baer 5-23), St Annes 70 (John 4-19, Smith 4-31)
Chorley 15 points, St Annes 3 points
Fleetwood 100 (Gates 8-59), Morecambe 101-2 (Woodhead 59*)
Fleetwood 0 points, Morecambe 12 points
Kendal 148 (Wanasinghe 5-57), Barrow 128 (Miles 42, Aldridge 4-46)
Kendal 15 points, Barrow 3 points
Lancaster 196-9 (Khan 55, Barry 50), Preston 197-4 (Asad 56, Patel, S 54, Vahaluwala 42*)
Lancaster 3 points, Preston 12 points
Leyland 175 (Khan 72, Fazil 4-53), Carnforth 58 (Makinson, A 4-19)
Leyland 15 points, Carnforth 3 points
Darwen 279-2 (Ashraf 144*, Semple 106), Netherfield 250-7 (Parry 115, Williams 42, Ashraf 5-37)
Darwen 9 points, Netherfield 4 points
* Not Out
3D SPORTS NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE
Division One
| Club |
P |
W15 |
W12 |
D4 |
D1 |
L |
NR4 |
BP |
Pts |
| Morecambe |
23 |
2 |
9 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
4 |
28 |
192 |
| St Annes |
22 |
4 |
3 |
7 |
1 |
4 |
3 |
48 |
185 |
| Kendal |
23 |
7 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
9 |
3 |
21 |
178 |
| Darwen |
22 |
1 |
8 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
7 |
25 |
178 |
| Netherfield |
22 |
2 |
8 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
21 |
177 |
| Leyland |
22 |
4 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
8 |
4 |
22 |
162 |
| Preston |
22 |
6 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
8 |
3 |
35 |
162 |
| Lancaster |
22 |
1 |
6 |
1 |
4 |
7 |
3 |
34 |
141 |
| Barrow |
22 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
8 |
4 |
44 |
134 |
| CARNFORTH |
22 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
9 |
4 |
40* |
121 |
| Fleetwood |
22 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
10 |
5 |
32 |
120 |
| Chorley |
22 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
10 |
6 |
33 |
116 |
| BLACKPOOL |
22 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
11 |
3 |
42* |
112 |
Teams in BLOCK CAPITALS have had points deducted,
* 2 points deducted for slow over rate from the Bonus Points Column
Congratulations to Lancaster who by beating Preston by four wickets on Saturday clinched the Division Two title as, with two games to play, their 26-point lead is unassailable.
Morecambe's Gulam Maje was the day's top scorer with 104 not out as his side defeated Fleetwood by 144 runs and bowling honours went to Dave Bonner whose 5-21 helped Darwen to an eight-wicket victory over Netherfield.
Division Two scores in brief (home sides in bold):
Kendal 84 (Walker 5-29), Barrow 86-5 (Potts 4-19)
Kendal 1 point, Barrow 12 points
Leyland 224-5 (Woolard 76*, Cartwright 61), Carnforth 132 (Cartwright 5-24, Coxhead 4-35)
Leyland 15 points, Carnforth 1 point
Netherfield 93 (Bonner 5-21, Hampson 4-51), Darwen 94-2
Netherfield 0 points, Darwen 12 points
Morecambe 231-3 (Maje 104*), Fleetwood 87 (Emsley 43, Smith 4-10, Low 4-44)
Morecambe 15 points, Fleetwood 0 points
Preston 70 (Moralee 5-32, Moffatt, L 4-23), Lancaster 71-6
Preston 1 point, Lancaster 12 points
Chorley 55, St Annes 57-0
Chorley 0 points, St Annes 12 points
And on Sunday Blackpool's home game with Fleetwood was played at Broadwater because of the upcoming county game at Stanley Park.
Blackpool 163-6 (Outram 63, Wilson, J 4-52), Fleetwood 65 (Armstrong 6-13)
Blackpool 15 points, Fleetwood 1 point
* Not Out
3D SPORTS NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE
Division Two
| Club |
P |
W15 |
W12 |
D4 |
D1 |
L |
NR4 |
BP |
Pts |
| Lancaster |
22 |
6 |
9 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
11 |
222 |
| Morecambe |
23 |
4 |
6 |
4 |
2 |
5 |
3 |
38 |
196 |
| St Annes |
22 |
2 |
8 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
38 |
188 |
| NETHERFIELD |
22 |
2 |
9 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
5 |
18* |
185 |
| Barrow |
22 |
3 |
5 |
2** |
1 |
8 |
3 |
41 |
165 |
| Chorley |
22 |
2 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
6 |
4 |
36 |
164 |
| Darwen |
22 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
4 |
5 |
4 |
35 |
153 |
| Blackpool |
22 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
9 |
4 |
42 |
148 |
| Leyland |
22 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
8 |
5 |
32 |
142 |
| Preston |
22 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
9 |
5 |
26 |
124 |
| Kendal |
23 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
10 |
5 |
25 |
115 |
| Fleetwood |
22 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
13 |
4 |
22 |
99 |
| Carnforth |
22 |
0 |
3 |
1** |
0 |
15 |
3 |
44 |
97 |
Teams in BLOCK CAPITALS have had points deducted,
* 2 points deducted for slow over rate from the Bonus Points Column
** Includes a Tied Game 5 points
MATCH ACTION
GATES AND WOODHEAD POWER MORECAMBE HOME
Fleetwood 100, Morecambe 101-2
By Gerry Wolstenholme
Jono Gates' career-best best figures of 8-59 and a powerful 58 not out by Mark Woodhead saw title challengers Morecambe brush aside a Fleetwood side that seems to be lacking in confidence in recent games. Wayne Clarke won the toss, elected to bat and then found his side decimated by a fine spell of pace bowling by Gates and dismissed for 100. Morecambe did lose two wickets in the chase for victory but it was never in doubt and once Woodhead took 22 off one over from Adam Breakell it was just a matter of time and they cruised home by eight wickets with 101-2.
The start was at least encouraging for Fleetwood, just for a few fleeting moments. That was when Nick Coultas carried on as he left off against Blackpool on Monday with some powerful blows that gave him a rapid nine before Gates started his destruction. Coultas had all the runs on the board when he edged to Mark Lomas at slip and Lomas picked up his second catch from the next ball when James Ellis went in similar fashion. The hat-trick was avoided but in his next over Gates made it three wickets in four balls when he held on to a drive by Kyle Smit, one, and that was 10-3.
John Whalley, who had an escape on one when a leaping Damien Gudgeon could only get a finger tip to an edge that shot through for four, made nine before Gareth Peddar had him caught by Werner Coetsee and that was 22-4. And it was 28-5 when Wayne Clarke, two, tried to whip Gates through mid-wicket only to find himself leg before wicket.
The best stand of the innings followed, a modest 39, as John Wright and Tom Wilson looked as though they would make some sort of recovery. Wright hit three fours in one Gates' over, a straight drive, a pull through mid-wicket and an edge through the slips but when he had made 27 He hit across the line at Coetsee and was bowled at 67-6. The rest of the innings was the Jono Gates show as he had Breakell, four, caught behind by Gudgeon at 76-7, James Wilson, four, caught by Woodhead off a skier to mid-on at 82-8, Tom Wilson, 27, caught by Tommy Clough in the gully at 88-9 and Tom Blundell, seven, caught by Coetsee at cover. And with John Wilkinson not out five the innings closed at 100 with Gates' figures being 14.4-2-59-8. Peddar finished with 1-22 and Coetsee 1-14. As for hapless Fleetwood their batting frailties were shown by the fact that, once again, very few batsmen survived 10 balls with Wright, 35, Tom Wilson, 56, Whalley, 16, Smit, 10, and James Wilson, 10, the only ones to do so.
Morecambe had 70 overs to reach their target but they only needed 17.4, particularly once Woodhead had got into the groove. He lost Vishnal Goyal for 11 when a jubilant Wright (he had missed the last catch presented to him the previous Saturday) took a catch at mid-on at 16-1 and Coetsee when he edged Smit to Ellis for five at 33-2. The rest was academic as Woodhead batted brilliantly and smote the ball to all parts of the ground. He only needed 57 balls for his 58 not out that included 10 fours and one six and with Mark Lomas making a more sedate 24 not out, Morecambe were home and dry, and leading the League, by eight wickets at 101-2. Blundell had 1-34 and Smit 1-23 for Fleetwood, who retired nursing their wounded pride.
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