Match Day 15th September 2007 3D SPORTS NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE IT'S ST ANNES' TITLE Gerry Wolstenholme In a spellbinding contest at Parkside Road on Saturday, St Annes clinched the ECB 3D Northern Premier League title by beating Netherfield with four balls remaining. Elsewhere Darwen drew with Barrow and stayed in third place behind St Annes and Morecambe while Preston and Kendal both won to cement places in next season's Lancashire Cup. It was dramatic to the last at Netherfield where Chris Parry carried on his good season with 57 and Sherwin Campbell made 46 as the home side reached a somewhat disappointing 190-6. St Annes lost half their side before the half-century was reached but then 62 not out by Russ Bradley and useful contributions from Mansoor Ahmed 39, Duncan Whalley, 19, and Dave Taylor, 12 not out, took St Annes to victory by two wickets with 192-8. Atif Ashraf smashed the League individual scoring record when he struck a magnificent 208 not out with 17 sixes as Darwen racked up 310-5 before declaring against Barrow. Next best effort for Darwen came from Mark Emery who made 29 while Keith Semple on his farewell made 22, Gareth Cordingley 20 and Jeff Hacking 14 as Daryl Wearing took 2-83 and Ryan Astle 2-51 for Barrow. Jonathan Miles then made his first Division One century with 113 not out but only Ian Allington, 44, and Iain Kermode with 17 could ably assist him. However Barrow held on for a draw with 187-8 as Andrew Mercer finished the season with 4-35, Ashraf completed a useful day with 2-37 and Gareth Cordingley took 1-17. Busy day at the office, Atif Ashraf acknowledges the Darwen crowd as he walks off with Jordan Clarke after scoring 208 no Record breaker Atif Ashraf (centre) with Darwen Captain Keith Semple after scoring a League Record 208 no, off 45 overs as Darwen declared on 310 - 5 at home against Barrow The unbeaten knock included 17 sixes and was the young Pakistani's third successive unbeaten century, 144 no at Netherfield, 140 no at home to Fleetwood It was Keith Semple's last game after 8 years at Darwen Photographs by kind permission of Harold Heys 15 September 2007 Preston won their ninth game of the season to finish in fifth place and they did it in style, bowling Fleetwood out for 79 in 27.1 overs and then making a rapid 83-0 in 12.5 overs. Only Michael Clinning, 22, and Tom Blundell, 20, reached double figures for Fleetwood as Bilal Asad took 6-44 and Lukman Vahaluwala 3-27. Sajid Patel smashed 60 not out for Preston as Paul Mann kept him company with 18 not out to complete the 10-wicket victory. Kendal finished in fourth place as they defeated Carnforth by 187 runs at Shap Road. Ikram Ullah made 116, Terry Hunte 49 and Tony Yasin 40 not out from Kendal's 245-5 declared made in 43 overs. John Denwood took 3-69 for Carnforth who were then dismissed in 13.4 overs for just 58 with Stuart Parkin taking 5-17 and Graeme Aldridge 5-35 as only Robert Parker, 23, and extras, 12, reached double figures. Blackpool finished their disappointing season with a fourth successive victory that augurs well for next season. They bowled Leyland out for 137 with Alan Richardson top scoring with 43 and Chris Parkinson making 25 as Paul Danson took 6-33. Luis Reece made 52, and substitute professional Husnian Abbass, who had earlier taken 2-49, made 41 and Leyland old-boy Adam Parker 25 as Blackpool won comfortably by seven wickets with 138-3. Finally Chorley and Lancaster drew at Windsor Park as the home side made 220-8 and Lancaster replied with 204-9. For Chorley Josh Tolley top scored with 91, Stephen John made 50 not out and Gaurav Dhar 41 as Tim Barry took 3-51 and Jannisar Khan 2-73 for Lancaster. Brendan Hetherington made a top score of 59 for Lancaster for whom Khan made 45, Jamie Heywood 26, David Heywood 18 and Luke Phillips 12 as Dhar took 3-52 and Nigel Eastham 3-63 for Chorley. First Division scores in brief (home sides in bold): Leyland 137 (Richardson 43, Danson 6-33) , Blackpool 138-3 (Reece 52, Abbass 41) Leyland 0 points, Blackpool 12 points Chorley 220-8 (Tolley, J 91, John 50*, Dhar 41), Lancaster 204-9 (Hetherington 59, Khan 45) Chorley 10 points, Lancaster 6 points Darwen 310-5 dec (Ashraf 208*), Barrow 187-8 (Miles 113*, Allington, I 44, Mercer 4-35) Darwen 9 points, Barrow 5 points Fleetwood 79 (Asad 6-44), Preston 80-0 (Patel 60*) Fleetwood 0 points, Preston 12 points Kendal 245-6dec (Ullah 116, Hunte 49, Yasin 40*), Carnforth 58 (Parkin 5-17, Aldridge 5-35) Kendal 15 points, Carnforth 1 point Netherfield 190-6 (Parry 57, Campbell 46), St Annes 192-8 (Bradley 62*) Netherfield 5 points, St Annes 12 points * Not Out 3D SPORTS NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division One Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts St Annes 24 4 5 7 1 4 3 48 209 Morecambe 24 3 9 2 2 4 4 28 207 Darwen 24 1 9 4 2 1 7 30 199 Kendal 24 8 3 1 0 9 3 21 193 Preston 24 7 2 3 1 8 3 35 189 Netherfield 24 2 8 2 2 5 5 28 184 Leyland 24 4 5 1 1 9 4 25 166 Lancaster 24 1 6 1 5 8 3 42 150 Barrow 24 1 4 3 4 8 4 53 148 BLACKPOOL 24 2 4 0 4 11 3 42* 136 Chorley 24 2 2 2 1 11 6 39 126 CARNFORTH 24 3 1 1 4 11 4 44* 125 Fleetwood 24 1 4 1 1 12 5 35 123 Teams in BLOCK CAPITALS have had points deducted, * 2 points deducted for slow over rate from the Bonus Points Column Division Two scores in brief (home sides in bold): Barrow 67 (Davies 4-1, Clarkson 4-15), Darwen 70-1 Barrow 0 points, Darwen 12 points Kendal 239-6 dec (Thompson 81, Phillips 50), Carnforth 241-6 (Darby 62, Russell 50, Potts 4-53) Kendal 4 points, Carnforth 12 points Lancaster 179-9, Chorley 181-2 (Catterall, D 59, Critchley 53*, Oakes 42) Lancaster 2 points, Chorley 12 points Blackpool 137 (Taylor, M 45, Cottam 4-24), Leyland 139-5 (Coxhead 43*) Blackpool 1 point, Leyland 12 points Fleetwood 67, Preston 70-4 Fleetwood 0 points, Preston 12 points Netherfield 187-9 (Baker 45, Bartholomew 5-39), St Annes 184 (Kellett 48, Stafford 6-76) Netherfield 15 points, St Annes 6 points * Not Out 3D SPORTS NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division Two Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Lancaster 24 6 9 0 2 4 3 16 228 NETHERFIELD 24 3 10 2 1 3 5 18* 212 St Annes 24 2 8 4 4 4 2 48 202 Morecambe 24 4 6 4 2 6 2 43 201 Chorley 24 2 8 2 2 6 4 36 188 Darwen 24 2 7 2 4 5 4 35 177 Barrow 24 3 5 2** 2 10 2 44 168 Leyland 24 4 4 1 2 8 5 32 166 Blackpool 24 3 3 2 1 11 4 46 152 Preston 24 3 4 2 1 9 5 26 148 Kendal 24 4 0 2 2 11 5 29 119 Carnforth 24 0 4 1** 0 16 3 47 112 Fleetwood 24 3 1 1 0 15 4 22 99 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 BRADLEY THE HERO AS ST ANNES SNEAK HOME Netherfield 190-6, St Annes 192-8 By Gerry Wolstenholme In a pulsating clash at Parkside Road on Saturday, St Annes won the Northern Premier League title by two points after picking up 12 points in their two-wicket victory over Netherfield. Skipper Duncan Whalley did the first thing correctly when he won the toss and had the choice of batting or fielding. Needing just 11 points to secure the title he opted for batting second and chasing down a target with the reward of 12 points rather than batting first and having to bowl Netherfield out. Despite a couple of hitches when it looked as though they would struggle to achieve their objective, firstly when Netherfield were cruising at 112-1 and secondly when they collapsed to 46-5, Russ Bradley played a magnificent innings of 62 not out to steer them home in the final over as, with 192-8, they overhauled Netherfield's 190-6. It began well for St Annes when danger man Craig Walmsley, 11, chipped Dave Taylor to Aiden Cotton at mid-on and Netherfield had lost their first wicket at 23. Chris Parry, with over 667 runs to his name this season, was joined by substitute professional Sherwin Campbell and the pair took stock of the St Annes bowling before Campbell launched himself into Dave Taylor with three fours and a two in one over and followed this with two in his next over. Professional Mansoor Ahmed joined the attack but Campbell drove him for two boundaries in his first over and it looked as though Netherfield were in for a run feast. However, once Ahmed and Michael Baer settled into a rhythm the Netherfield batsmen could not keep up the scoring rate. But they did pass 100 and had reached 112 when Campbell, 46 from 75 balls with eight fours, edged Baer to Adam Cotton at slip. Ryan Brown came in, drove one beautiful six and had advanced to 14 when he edged Ahmed to Whalley behind the stumps and that was 137-3. Parry's was the crucial wicket and it fell at 153 when he had made 57 from 118 balls with six fours. He had just survived a stumping chance on 56 but one run later he skied Baer to Ian Austin at short mid-on. From then on Netherfield failed to accelerate although Simon Little did his best with a speedy 26 not out. He saw Mark Daly, who also hit a sweet six straight down the ground, stumped by Whalley off Ahmed for 13 at 182-5 and, from the last ball of the innings, the same St Annes pair accounted for Ben Haddrick, five, in similar fashion so the Netherfield innings finished on 190-6, probably some 40 or 50 runs short of what at one time they looked like scoring. Ahmed, who St Annes have signed as professional for next season, took 3-69, Baer 2-50 and Taylor, whose first few overs until Campbell set about him had been admirable, took 1-39. St Annes began their reply with gusto and two boundaries from Adrian Darlington and one from Gareth Evans soon had 15 on the board. But then disaster struck. Ryan Wilson induced Darlington, eight, to edge to Brown behind the stumps and two runs later Evans played on to Scott Clement when going for an expansive drive. As if that wasn't bad enough for St Annes, Austin, dropped at slip by Campbell on one, added only 10 more to reach 11 before he dragged a ball from Clement onto his stumps at 38-3 and without addition Aiden Cotton, nine and caught off a no-ball from Wilson when seven, drove Wilson to Campbell at short extra cover. Adam Cotton made five before he edged Stuart Nixon to Brown and St Annes were in disarray at 46-5. Ahmed and Russ Bradley were charged with the difficult job of keeping the St Annes title charge on course and they began steadily. Tension round the ground was high, especially with many of the Morecambe team who were leading the League and hoping for a Netherfield victory, among the watching crowd. The St Annes' pair edged the total beyond 100 and hopes began to rise again for the Fylde Coast side but when the pair had added 72 runs Ahmed fell to the change bowling of Daly. Having hit five fours and one six in his 67 balls, he fell to his 68th when he tried to drive another six only for the safe hands of Little on the long-on boundary to pouch the catch and that was 118-6. John Musgrave made two before a sensational catch by Campbell off Daly ended his innings. He drove to cover where Campbell leapt at the ball, got his hands to it but dropped it behind him. Arching in mid-air Campbell twisted and caught the rebound as it fell to the ground and that was 122-7 with the momentum once again shifting towards Netherfield. But the St Annes batting line-up with Whalley at number nine is a strong one and he and Bradley bravely took the total to 159 before, attempting a very quick single, Whalley, a valuable 19, was run out when Daly's return to Clement found him short of the crease. In came Taylor with 32 needed from five overs and he showed his intentions by driving his first ball from Clement sweetly to the extra cover boundary. Bradley meanwhile continued to garner runs at the other end and 15 were required from the final two overs. This was reduced to 10 from the last over bowled by Clement, who had bowled 19 overs magnificently and kept his side very much in the game. With the crowd hushed, Bradley stepped down the track to the first ball and struck it brilliantly over long-on and past the scoreboard for six to make a big dent in the requirement. The next ball was a no-ball and it all ended when, from the second legitimate ball of the over, Bradley firmly clubbed a boundary and among universal delight from the watching St Annes players and supporters leapt in the air to celebrate a famous victory. Bradley ended 62 not out from 99 balls with five fours and one six and Taylor, whose part in the stand that put on 33 for the ninth wicket must not be underestimated, made 12 not out. The unfortunate Clement finished with 2-66, Wilson with 2-31, Daly with 2-24 and Nixon with 1-23. The St Annes players rushed onto the field to celebrate and the sporting Morecambe players, now resigned to runners-up, were among the first to congratulate them. The trophy was presented by League secretary John Cooper among scenes of joy from the St Annes' contingent and scenes of what might have been from those from Netherfield. It was a truly great end to what has been a most frustrating season. Craig Walmsley and Chris Parry take the field for Netherfield Sherwin Campbell leaves the field after making 46 Russ Bradley receives the plaudits from is delighted teammates The St Annes celebrations begin John Musgrave, Ian Austin, Russ Bradley, Gareth Evans, Adam Cotton, Michael Baer, Mansoor Ahmed (Pro) Aiden Cotton, Duncan Whalley, Adrian Darlington, David Taylor

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