St Annes lose Boucher
Darwen captain Andrew Cook |
LEYLAND v CHORLEY
Chorley have West Indian batsman Alcindo Holder, the Rochdale professional, as sub-pro for their opening game at Leyland while Rex Purnell returns to the side after several years absence.
The side is: J Catterall (capt), A Holder (pro), J Tolley (wkt), A Holdsworth (v/c), B Smith, S Sweeney, K McCullogh, W Moulton, R Flood, C Millward, R Purnell.
The Leyland side reads: Makinson D, Cummings P, Cross K, Parkinson C, Farrington I, Rounding J, Pallett S, Watkinson M (WK), Reece T, Makinson A, Khan A (Pro).
PRESTON v LANCASTER
Preston have five of last season's players unavailable including captain Glenn Johnstone, who will be out for several weeks with a back injury.
Their side is as follows: Lukman Vahaluwala (capt), Mike Beevers (wkt), Munaf Bavla, Sajid Patel, Jonty McDonald, Rehman Shah, Yasin Patel, Rory Pennington, Javaid Hussain, Omar Malik, Bilal Asad ( Pro )
NETHERFIELD v BARROW
The Barrow side reads: D Wearing; I Allington; L Livingstone; C Brookshaw; P Wilcock; G Dawson; D Clark; J Miles; I Kermode; J McMenemy; P Wanasinghe (pro)
The Barrow 2nd X1 selection for the reverse fixture is as follows: R Mowat; R Lightfoot; G Reynolds; J Nicholson; D Myles; G Kermode; A Cartmell; N Lauderdale; M Studt; J Sturgeon; L Walker.
Barrow skipper Darryl Wearing reports: "Pasan (pro Wanasinghe) arrived on Wednesday and he can't wait until the season starts. He has had a very good season back home, picking up the Best All Rounder accolade for his respective grade of cricket. He is not enjoying our lovely weather but I am sure he will get used to it.
"We are hoping that we will get some play on Saturday, as there is a good buzz around the club and everyone is looking forward to getting going.
"We do not have a fixture this Sunday, but next week we play Cockermouth from the North Lancs and Cumbria Cricket League in the County cup, which we hope to do well in this year. Then, Sunday 4th May, we meet Fulwood and Broughton in the Cockspur Cup, both games are at home which hopefully will give us a bit of an advantage.
"Although we have had some really bad weather over recent months, the ground looks in pristine condition, and full credit must be given to the ground staff."
The new players have settled very well and again they can't wait to get 'their teeth into the higher standard of cricket."
ST ANNES v DARWEN
St Annes have named the following team for the first defence of their league title when they entertain Darwen on Saturday:
D Whalley (c); S Twist; G Evans; R Bradley; D Taylor; A Cotton; J Musgrave; A Uz-Zaman; G Whitehead; A Taylor; M Ahmed (pro)
The prospects of play are very good, providing we don't get any more rain. We called last week's friendlies off due to the wet ground, reports cricket manager Russ Bradley.
We have no game on Sunday. We play Netherfield in the National Knockout on 11th May, moved from 18th May at their request to accommodate their Cumbria Cup game.
We have no Charles Boucher for this season he has decided to play for Brighouse in the Bradford League.
The St Annes 2nd XI selection for their away game at Darwen reads: 2nd XI - A Kellett, N Bradley, D Watson, D Bartholomew, G Costin, S Hirst, B Willis, L O'Dea, D Hartley, P Jackson, S Bickerdike.
Darwen's 1st XI, captained for the first time by Andrew Cook, reads: 1 A Cook (Captain), 2. N Jackson 3. G Cordingley 4. J Cordingley 5. C Clarke 6. J Clarke 7. S Hampson 8. M Clarkson 9. K Anwar 10. Yakub 11. Atif Ashraf (Pro)
Darwen captain Andrew Cook reports: "Atif has arrived with his new wife, they got married on the 6th. We have a young side to start the season with. Six of the team are under 20 and we give a debut to Yakub Bhamji a 16 year-old fast bowler previously at East Lancashire CC .
Darwen's 2nd XI reads: 1. G Jackson (Captain) 2. G Ainslie 3. D Bonner 4. C Davies 5. M Bennett 6. A Mulla 7. N Burke 8. M Grant 9. S Jackson 10. A Brown 11. K Vallimulla.
CARNFORTH v BLACKPOOL
Carnforth chairman Mark Holmes reports ahead of the visit of Blackpool: We have had a fine week weather wise and the wicket for the game on Saturday has been rolled to within an inch of its life, it is like concrete.
"Our pro will miss the first two games, so we have secured Wayne Madsen of South Africa as pro for the first two games.
"With having such a young side, we have been hit with university commitments so we are probably not as strong as we could be this week."
Carnforth captain Adam Hornby adds:: "Our team is: 1- A. Hornby; 2-D. Moore, 3-R. Parker, 4-B, Harrison, 5-L. Bradley, 6-J. Denwood, 7-J, Relph, 8-A. Cowperthwaite, 9-W, Tomlinson, 10-L, Barnes, 11- W Madsen (Sub Pro )
"The pitch and clubhouse are both looking good and ready for the start of the new season, the bar will be open from 1 on Sat with our new beer and lager selection. All are welcome to come and have a look at all the work that's been carried out and enjoy a pint and a bit of cricket."
Blackpool's Andy Griffiths writes:Our professional, Sajeewah Weerakoon, has been selected to play for Ruhuna in the Sri Lankan Inter Provincial Twenty 20 tournament, which started today (Thursday). As such he will miss our first two League fixtures, away at Carnforth, and at home to Leyland. We have secured the services of Janaka Gunaratne (Sri Lanka) as Sub-Pro for the first 2 league games. Janaka has an Overseas Pro contract with Walsden in the Central Lancashire League.
See - http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/srilanka/content/player/49022.html
"We played two pre-season friendlies last weekend, against Walsden on Saturday (Blackpool 93 all out, Walsden 94-8) and East Lancs on Sunday (East Lancs 106 all out, Blackpool 107-2) - despite conditions being wet, particularly on Saturday, our ground is in reasonable condition for the first league game, although we may choose to rope off some of the worst affected areas of the outfield around the boundary perimeter.
We welcome 7 new players to the club, Andy Hogarth, Jamie Hogarth and Will Norris from Freckleton, Adrian Darlington returns to the club after an absence of 17 years from St Annes, Michael Moore returns to the club from Keswick, Kev Reid returns to the club after an absence of 10 years from Huntly in Scotland, Mike Pile from Huyton, Dean Bell and Sam Bell, both from Kendal. Dean and Sam will be unavailable until school commitments for Sedbergh are completed at the end of June.
"Mike and Chris Taylor are both away at University, so are unavailable for selection until June. John Caunce, Jarred Bain, and Matty Brown are all away and unavailable for selection.
"Michael "Bash" Moore has failed a fitness test on a back injury incurred during his 51 not out in the friendly win against East Lancs, which means our 1st and 2nd XI for the opening games of the season against Carnforth is as follows...........
1st XI (Away) Carnforth 1 DANSON Paul (Capt) (Capt), 2 DARLINGTON Adrian 3 GLEESON Richard 4 HOGARTH Andy 5 HOGARTH Jamie , 6 NEWTON David , 7 PENNEY Michael , 8 REECE Luis, 9 SMITH Alex, 10 SMITH James (w/k), 11 GUNARATNE Janaka (pro).
2nd XI (Home) Carnforth, 1 GRIFFITHS Mark (Capt), 2 AGA Prashant, 3 ARMSTRONG Andy, 4 BOOTH David, 5 BRACEWELL Robin, 6 MELVILLE Luke, 7 MERCER Steven, 8 NORRIS Will, 9 OUTRAM Craig, 10 PARKER Ross, 11 WALL Nicky
MORECAMBE v FLEETWOOD
Morecambe's selection for their opening game against Fleetwood reads: Goyal, Thornton, Woodhead, Lomas, Martin (p), Dennison, Clough, Pedder, Gudgeon, Lee, Gates
Our pro arrived on Wednesday and is fit and raring to go, adds skipper Mark Lomas. The ground is looking good will be spot on for Saturday if no rain.
The Fleetwood team for Saturday v Morecambe is as follows: W Clarke, T Wilson, N Coultas, M Clinning, A Parker, A Sharrocks, A Breakall, T Blundell, L Jones, M Clark, N Rupasinghe (pro)
Skipper Wayne Clarke reports: I picked Rupi up on Wednesday and his first comments were how cold it was He has since had his first practice with the boys, and we look forward to him having a big impact on the team this year.
Prospects for play at Fleetwood (for the 2nds) are good, the ground is in good shape and as long as there is no rain on Saturday then all bodes well. No Fixtures on Sunday.
