Match Day 9th July 2005 ST ANNES INCREASE THEIR LEAD AT THE TOP By Gerry Wolstenholme A win for St Annes batting first and a defeat for their closest challenger Netherfield meant that the Vernon Road side's lead at the top of the table was increased to a massive 36 points and it could indicate that the title race is over for the season, albeit with many games remaining. It will require a serious slip-up by St Annes plus some extraordinary cricket from the chasing pack for them to be caught. Wins for Fleetwood and Darwen do, however, mean that St Annes well know that they must not falter. The leaders batted first at Leyland and made a massive 259-5 with Shane Harwood, 64 with one six and eight fours, and Ian Austin, 62 with nine fours, putting on 110 in quick time. Gareth Evans made 38 and Adrian Darlington 34 before the wickets were shared as Leyland were bowled out for 103 to lose by 156 runs. Nigel Pearson made a top score of 26 not out while Paul Haydock and Aidan Walsh each made 16 and Jon Harvey 14. Harwood had 2-9 from 10 overs, seven of which were maidens, Michael Baer had 2-6, and the returning Dave Taylor wrapped the game up with 3-9, all his wickets coming in one over, the final one, and two of them in two balls. Netherfield faced a mammoth task at Woodhill Lane as Morecambe posted an impressive 231-5 but the Cumbrians made a valiant effort only to lose by seven runs with 224 all out. Morecambe's runs came from Mark Orchard, 62, Mali Maketa, 56, Mark Woodhead, 42, and 47 from Tommy Clough who went on to take 3-44 including the vital last wicket of Ryan Wilson, leg before wicket for nought after Marc Hadwin's valiant 18 not out from one Pierre de Bruyn over had threatened to take Netherfield to victory. Gareth White top scored for the Cumbrians with 69, Grahame Clarke made 52 and then came Craig Walmsley with 29 as Orchard took 4-61. Morecambe skipper Phil Dennison commented, "It was a tremendous game of cricket with the bat on top throughout. All credit to Netherfield for continuing to go for the runs and at one time I thought they were probably out of it. And then came that onslaught from Marc Hadwin that put the game back within their grasp. But fortunately for us Tommy Clough came to our rescue with the vital last wicket with the first ball of what would probably have been the last over." Fleetwood made short shrift of a hapless Preston side who totally collapsed to find themselves at 6-6. A minor recovery took them to 21-8 and then, in the context of what had gone before, a miraculous 31 was put on for the last two wickets. Steve Hill, 4-26, and Tom Blundell, 3-5, did the early damage while Dave Fish had 2-12. Preston's top scorer was skipper Glenn Johnstone with 17 and Richard Dixon with 11 was the only other player in double figures. But Rhys Williams saw that Fleetwood did not have it all their own way as he mirrored Hill with 4-26 and with two wickets to Lukman Vahaluwala Fleetwood lost six wickets in reaching 53 with Doug Watson's 19 being the best effort of the day. Darwen defeated Blackpool by six wickets but at one stage must have thought that they would have had an easier task as Blackpool slipped to 82-7 but then veterans Robin Bracewell, 58 not out, and Martin Pickles, 24 not out, put on 85 runs to take their side to a more comfortable 167-7 as Neil Cordingley took 4-31. Keith Semple was then in fine form for Darwen and was 81 not out when his side won at 169-4. Gareth Cordingley made 16 and John Cordingley was 14 not out at the end. Chorley posted only 122 against Barrow but it proved enough to win the game by 11 runs as Barrow were dismissed for 111. Michael Critchley top scored with 41 and then came youngster Josh Tolley who made a valiant 14 before taking four catches behind the stumps to set Barrow on the way to defeat. Iain Kermode had 2-30 but Peter Lawson was the bowling star with 6-24 but his 10 not out at the end that augmented a top score of 30 from Ray Mowat plus a second-best of 24 extras could not prevent the Cumbrians slipping to defeat. Only Tod Bamber of the rest made double figures as Tom Smith took 4-17 and Guarav Dhar 4-43. Ikram Ullah, 116, and Simon Little, 85, put on 206 for Kendal's first wicket and when they were both out a declaration came at 230-2. Leyland Motors were then bowled out for just 105 as Kevin Howarth took 5-35, Chris Miller 2-9 and Kabir Khan 2-17. Andrew Makinson made a top score of 22 for Motors and Alan Richardson made 21. Scores in brief (home sides in bold): Chorley 122 (Critchley 41, Lawson 6-24), Barrow 111 (Smith T 4-17, Dhar 4-43) Chorley 15 points, Barrow 3 points Blackpool 167-7 (Bracewell 58*, Cordingley N 4-31), Darwen 169-4 (Semple 81*) Blackpool 2 points, Darwen 12 points Preston 52 (Hill 4-26), Fleetwood 53-6 (Williams 4-26) Preston 1 point, Fleetwood 12 points St Annes 259-5 (Harwood 63, Austin 62), Leyland 103 St Annes 15 points, Leyland 1 point Kendal 230-2 dec (Ullah 116, Little 85), Leyland Motors 105 (Howarth 5-35) Kendal 15 points, Leyland Motors 0 points Morecambe 231-5 (Orchard 62*, Maketa 56, Clough 47, Woodhead 42) , Netherfield 224 (White G 60, Clarke 52, Orchard 4-61, Clough 4-64) Morecambe 15 points, Netherfield 4 points SURRIDGE NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division One Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts St Annes 14 3 7 2 1 0 1 10 152 Netherfield 14 2 3 4 1 2 2 27 116* Fleetwood 14 3 2 2 0 4 3 16 105 Darwen 14 1 5 1 2 1 3 8 101 Morecambe 14 2 2 3 2 3 2 20 96 Blackpool 14 2 1 3 3 2 3 25 94 Barrow 14 1 3 1 2 4 3 18 87 Chorley 14 2 0 2 4 3 3 26 78* Leyland 14 0 3 1 3 4 3 17 72 Kendal 13 1 1 1 2 5 3 26 71 Lancaster 13 1 2 0 0 7 3 11 62 Leyland Motors 14 1 1 1 1 8 2 22 62 Preston 14 1 0 2 2 6 3 22 57* * 2 points deducted for Slow Over Rate Man of the day in the Second Division was Barrow's Shaun Miller who made 114 from his side's 236-4 but they could not force a win as Chorley held on at 180-9./p> On the bowling front there were three six-wicket hauls, Sean Graves 6-41 for Morecambe who lost to Netherfield, Stuart Parkin 6-49 in Kendal's win over Leyland Motors and Stuart Nixon's 6-52 in Netherfield's victory over Morecambe. Scores in brief (home sides in bold): Barrow 236-4 (Miller 114, Bandara 52), Chorley 180-9 (Hotham 56, Parker 5-44) Barrow 10 points, Chorley 4 points Blackpool 195-7 (Reece 64, Griffiths 51), Darwen 166-9 Blackpool 10 points, Darwen 5 points Kendal 210-8 (Williams 62), Leyland Motors 134 (Royle 52, Parkin 6-49) Kendal 15 points, Leyland Motors 2 points Netherfield 198-8 (Winder 75, Girdhari 60, Graves 6-41), Morecambe 133 (Cassidy 43, Nixon 6-52) Netherfield 15 points, Morecambe 2 points Preston 131 (Breakall 4-29), Fleetwood 132-8 Preston 2 points, Fleetwood 12 points Leyland 133-7 (Slater 41, Thomas 5-51), St Annes 134-3 (Kellett 54*) Leyland 0 points, St Annes 12 points SURRIDGE NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division Two Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Fleetwood 14 3 5 0 1 3 2 14 128 Netherfield 14 5 1 2 1 3 2 21 125 Barrow 14 2 4 3 1 2 2 23 122 St Annes 13 1 7 0 2 0 3 6 119 Chorley 14 2 4 1 2 2 3 17 113 Morecambe 14 1 5 2 0 4 2 20 111 Darwen 14 1 5 2 2 2 1 21 110 Blackpool 14 2 0 3* 0 6 3 29 84 Leyland 14 2 1 1* 1 6 3 12 72 Leyland Motors 14 0 3 2 1 7 1 22 71 Kendal 13 3 0 0 1 8 1 16 66 Preston 13 2 1 0 1 6 3 9 64 Lancaster 13 0 0 0 1 9 2 9 18 * Includes 5 points for a Tie MATCH ACTION FLEETWOOD SNEAK HOME Preston 52, Fleetwood 53-6 By Gerry Wolstenholme Looking at the pitch before the start of play skippers John Wright and Glenn Johnstone both thought that it was laden with runs and when the latter won the toss he was as delighted to bat as the former was disappointed to bowl. However, things did not turn out as expected for 16 wickets were lost for only 105 runs in a game that was over by 4.50pm. Preston made a dreadful start, losing their first six wickets for six runs, but eventually recovered to make 52 all out. And if Fleetwood thought it was going to be a formality to win, they had another think coming as they lost six wickets in reaching the required 53. Steve Hill bowled an opening maiden over to Paul Mann before Tom Blundell struck in his first over when he had West Indian professional Mario Ventura playing away from his body and edging to Andrew Clough at second slip and that was 0-1. It was 0-2 in the next over when Paul Mann was adjudged leg before wicket much to his disgust, so much so that he threw his bat towards mid-wicket as he left the field. After Munaf Bavla had scored the first runs with a three, he returned a gentle catch to Blundell and that was a symmetrical 3-3. Preston then suffered their third duck of the innings as Ian McDonnell drove Hill straight to Rob Clark at short extra cover and it was 3-4. Runs then overtook wickets as the total advanced to six at which point Lukman Vahaluwala, one, was run out from a smart piece of fielding by Hill whose direct hit left the batsman stranded and it was 6-5. But symmetry returned when Yashin Patel, two, was superbly held head-high in the gully by Wayne Clarke and it was 6-6. There followed a stand of almost epic proportions in contrast to what had gone before as Johnstone and Richard Dixon put on 14 for the seventh wicket before Hill trapped Dixon leg before wicket for 11 and that was 21-7. In came Chris Southall and almost incredulously in the context of the game he essayed an expansive cover drive at his first ball only for his middle stump to go cartwheeling to Hill and it was 21-8. Johnstone and Rhys Williams then added 18 before Ellis caught the former off Dave Fish for 17 and that was 39-9. Williams and Israr Hussein batted sensibly until Adam Sharrocks at short extra cover caught Williams for eight and with Hussein nine not out, Preston had surrendered for just 52. Hill had 4-26, Blundell 3-5 in a fine opening spell of seven overs, and Fish 2-12. Fleetwood's reply began well and Doug Watson had 19, including three fours, of the 21 runs on the board when Vahaluwala had him leg before wicket and without a run added, Bavla caught Rob Clark off Williams for two. The in-form Sharrocks failed to get off the mark as Mann caught him off Williams and it was 23-3. Williams, bowling splendidly in a desperate effort to get his side something out of the game, then bowled Ellis for three and Fleetwood were wobbling at 34-4. Two runs later and Michael Clinning, 12, was caught behind the wicket by Mann off Vahaluwala and at 36-5 Fleetwood were staring down the barrel. Andrew Clough had made three when Williams had him leg before wicket at 45-6 but then came John Wright to steady the nerves and when Wayne Clarke drove three through mid-wicket an incredible game was won and lost with Fleetwood victors by four wickets at 53-6. Skipper Wright said, "It was an incredible game and one that I did not expect. We bowled extremely well to dismiss them cheaply but very nearly self-destructed. Thankfully our target was a small one and it was a relief when Wayne scored those winning runs."

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