Match Day 6th August 2005 ST ANNES INCREASE THE LEAD TO A MASSIVE 44 POINTS By Gerry Wolstenholme A win for leaders St Annes coupled with a draw for nearest challengers Netherfield meant that the lead at the top of the Surridge Northern Premier League was increased to 44 points. Blackpool picked up 15 points to put pressure on second-placed Netherfield, who they now trail by only six points and with Fleetwood, Morecambe and Darwen all failing to win, the top three have opened a 14-point gap between themselves and the chasing pack. St Annes won easily at home to Morecambe as they bowled the visitors out for 119 with Stephen Twist taking 5-41 and Phil Dennison making a top score of 56, aided by 27 from Reg Cupit. Twist then made 49 not out as Morecambe made a valiant effort but failed to take more than five wickets as St Annes won with 120-5. Netherfield batted first at Darwen and thanks to 57 from Pierre de Bruyn they reached a relatively modest 165-9. Neil Cordingley replied with 60 but Darwen fell four runs short of victory and finished with a draw at 162-8. At Stanley Park Blackpool won comfortably against Leyland Motors who were bowled out for 107 thanks to a fine spell of bowling by Justin Kreusch who took a magnificent 8-50 as Tim Barry, 2-25, took the other wickets. Only Atif Ashraf with 30 made much headway for Motors as Phil Iddon and Tom Reece both made 17. Kreusch then went on to make 50 not out and Steven Croft made 36 as Blackpool finished early with an eight-wicket victory at 108-2. Kendal came out on top at Shap Road where visitors Chorley batted first and made 167 with stand-in professional U Chandra making 51, Javid Hussein 28 not out and Ian Oakes 26 while Kevin Howarth took 4-49 and Kabir Khan 3-37 for Kendal. Mohammad Yasin then made 43, Terry Hunte a second consecutive 42, Howarth 39 and Khan 21 as Kendal won by four wickets with 171-6. There were two wickets each for Chandra, Craig Millward and Ghurav Dhar, for 51 runs, 44 runs and 27 runs respectively. Four hundred and thirty runs were scored at Lune Road but there was no winner as Fleetwood, 227-6, drew with Lancaster, 203-5. For Fleetwood Michael Clinning made 51 not out and five batsmen made starts as James Ellis made 39, John Wright 33, stand-in professional 'Cookie' Gaekwad 28, Adam Sharrocks 28 and Andrew Clough 23 not out while Graham Barnes, bowling unchanged for 26 overs, took 4-78 for Lancaster. Ramon Shah top scored when Lancaster batted as he made 98 while Luke Phillips contributed 33 and Ian Burstow 23 not out as Dave Fish took 3-38 for Fleetwood. Nineteen wickets fell for just 163 runs at Fox Lane and visitors Barrow came out on top of an exciting game by one wicket as they replied to Leyland's 81 all out with 82-9. James Wright made 43 for Leyland and C Gibradi was next with 11 and Brain Tennant 10 as Peter Lawson took 3-26, Rawl Lewis 2-16 and Jon Mullin 2-12. Ian Allington, 23, and Stephen Glasgow, 12, got Barrow off to a good start but wickets fell and Paul Wilcock down the order made 14 so that Mullin, six not out, and Lawson, who did not score, saw Barrow home in a tense finish. Adam Parker took 7-45 for Leyland and Brian Tennant had 2-30. Scores in brief (home sides in bold): Leyland Motors 107 (Kreusch 8-50), Blackpool 108-2 (Kreusch 50*) Leyland Motors 0 points, Blackpool 12 points Netherfield 165-9 (de Bruyn 57), Darwen 162-8 (Cordingley N 60) Netherfield 8 points, Darwen 6 points Chorley 167 (Chandra 51, Howarth 4-49), Kendal 171-6 (Mohammad 42) Chorley 3 points, Kendal 12 points Fleetwood 227-6 (Clinning 51*, Barnes G 4-78), Lancaster 203-5 (Shah 98) Fleetwood 8 points, Lancaster 5 points Leyland 81 (Wright 43), Barrow 82-9 (Parker 7-45) Leyland 3 points, Barrow 12 points Morecambe 119 (Dennison 56, Twist 5-41), St Annes 120-5 (Twist 49*) Morecambe 1 point, St Annes 12 points SURRIDGE NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division One Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts St Annes 19 3 10 3 1 1 1 18 200 Netherfield 18 2 5 6 1 2 2 35 156* Blackpool 19 3 4 3 3 3 3 30 150 Fleetwood 19 3 3 3 2 5 3 27 134 Morecambe 18 3 3 4 2 4 2 26 133 Kendal 18 4 2 1 2 6 3 30 132 Darwen 19 1 5 2 4 3 3 29 128 Barrow 19 1 5 1 2 7 3 25 118 Chorley 19 3 0 2 5 6 3 34 102* Leyland 18 1 3 1 4 6 3 24 95 Preston 18 1 1 4 2 7 3 33 83*** Leyland Motors 18 1 1 2 2 10 2 33 78 Lancaster 18 1 2 0 2 10 3 23 76 * 2 points deducted for Slow Over Rate *** two points deducted for slow over rate on two occasions, three points deducted for slow over rate once There were two centurions in the Second Division but they met with differing fortunes. James Fazackerley's 105 for Chorley helped his side to 240-5, with Roland Horridge making a welcome return to Northern League cricket but also sadly failing to score on his comeback, and this was enough to defeat Kendal by 135 runs as they were bowled out for Fazackerley's score, 105 On the other hand Shaun Miller's superb 162 not out from a massive total of 268-5 did not help his side to victory for Leyland courageously held out for a draw at 182-7. All-round performance of the day came from Morecambe's Faruk Patel who scored 47, and with Stuart Errington scoring 50, their side reached 164 all out. Patel then took 6-31 as then leaders St Annes suffered their second successive defeat by being bowled out for just 77. Scores in briefM (home sides in bold): Barrow 268-6 (Miller 162*, Smith 45, Brown M 4-82), Leyland 182-7 (Brown M 81) Barrow 9 points, Leyland 5 points Chorley 240-5 (Fazackerley 105), Kendal 105 (Holdsworth 4-24) Chorley 15 points, Kendal 1 point Fleetwood 225-8 dec (Stanhope 73, Emsley 57, Rawes 5-43), Lancaster 115 (Laird 5-55) Fleetwood 15 points, Lancaster 2 points Leyland Motors 206-8 (Totham 73, Parker 4-60), Blackpool 74 Lancaster 15 points, Blackpool 2 points Morecambe 164 (Errington 50, Patel 47), St Annes 77 (Patel 6-31) Morecambe 15 points, St Annes 3 points Darwen 151-6 (Painter 40, Miller 5-70), Netherfield 155-4 (Hill 60*) Darwen 1 point, Netherfield 12 points SURRIDGE NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Division Two Club P W15 W12 D4 D1 L NR4 BP Pts Netherfield 18 8 2 2 1 3 2 21 182 Barrow 19 5 4 4 1 3 2 32 180 Fleetwood 19 4 7 0 2 4 2 21 175 St Annes 19 2 9 1 2 2 3 18 174 Chorley 19 3 5 2 2 4 3 24 151 Morecambe 18 2 6 4 0 4 2 24 150 Darwen 18 1 5 2 2 6 1 29 118 Blackpool 19 2 1 3* 0 10 3 41 108 Leyland Motors 18 1 4 2 3 7 1 27 105 Preston 18 3 3 0 1 8 3 9 103 Leyland 18 2 2 1* 3 7 3 22 96 Kendal 18 3 1 0 1 12 1 21 83 Lancaster 17 0 0 0 1 13 2 18 27 * Includes 5 points for a Tie MATCH ACTION ST ANNES REGAIN THE WINNING TOUCH Morecambe 119, St Annes 120-5 By Gerry Wolstenholme After last week's hiccup, St Annes got back to winning ways against Morecambe at Vernon Road on Saturday when they dismissed the visitors for 119 and then scored 120-5 to achieve their five-wicket victory. Stephen Twist was the St Annes hero with five wickets and a not out 49. Morecambe won the toss and elected to bat, a decision that soon looked to be a bad one as the first four wickets were lost for only seven runs and on this occasion it was not Shane Harwood who played the starring role as Twist captured three of the batsmen. But it was Harwood who started the collapse by bowling Mali Maketa without a run on the board in his first over with a ball that kept deceptively low. Tommy Clough came in, made two and then was caught by an outstanding catch by Ian Austin at slip off Twist. The ball looked to have passed the St Annes skipper but he stuck out a hand and held a superb catch and Morecambe were 3-2. Gareth Peddar also made two before Twist trapped him leg before wicket at 5-3 and then it was 7-4 when Duncan Whalley held onto an edge from Twist from Mark Woodhead, who had also made two. Mark Orchard battled to make 13 before a serious piece of misjudgement cost him his wicket. He left a ball from Harwood that nipped back sharply on him and just removed the off bail on its way through to the wicketkeeper and that was 31-5. One run later and Nick Milner had gone without scoring when he drove very loosely to Adam Cotton at mid-off from the bowling of Joe Davies. Then came the best batting of the innings as captain Phil Dennison and Reg Cupit took the attack to the St Annes bowlers. Both hit sweetly timed boundaries, Cupit starting with four of them in his first 16 runs, and they put on 73 runs in 51 minutes as Harwood and Twist both took a rest. Dennison had advanced to a chanceless 56, made from 65 balls with eight fours, when Dave Taylor took another excellent catch, diving forward at short mid-wicket and that was 104-7. Cupit, 27 from 49 balls with four fours, was then caught and bowled by the returning Twist at 111-8 and it was 119-9 when Austin returned to the attack and bowled Warren Quinn for 10. Without addition and in the same over as Quinn was dismissed he trapped Peter Stephens leg before wicket for nought and Morecambe were 119 all out in 37 overs. Twist, bowling with fire throughout, took a fine 5-41, Harwood had 2-17, Austin 2-20 and Davies 1-21. The St Annes reply could not have begun more badly as Orchard trapped Adrian Darlington leg before wicket with the first ball of the innings so both sides had lost their first wicket without a run on the scoreboard. It could have got far worse for in the same opening over Austin was dropped before he had scored before he and Gareth Evans steadied the ship and took the total to 30 but not without further alarms. Austin was dropped on 15 off Stephens and Evans was dropped on eight off Orchard before Austin charmed life ended when Maketa took a fine diving catch in the gully and the St Annes skipper had gone for 17 at 30-2. Another wicket followed four balls later when Orchard bowled Harwood before he had scored and that was 34-3 after four byes had been conceded. Twist came in and never looked in much trouble, although he did give a half-chance to the bowler Peddar when he fired a fierce drive low and to his left but the despairing dive only managed to see a finger laid on the ball, and he and Evans advanced the total to 74 at which point another diving catch, this time by Dennison in the gully, cost Evans his wicket for 27 well-made runs. Russ Bradley looked in good form, continuing from where he left off last week, but when he had made 16 yet another fine diving catch saw his downfall. Peddar at extra cover dived to hold a catch off the bowling of Quinn and that was 115-5. Then, despite Stephens bowling three successive maiden overs together with one from Quinn, Davies, one not out, and Twist, 49 not out from 68 balls with seven fours, saw St Annes safely home by five wickets at 120-5 and it was yet another early finish at Vernon Road. Morecambe on the defensive after losing an early wicket St Annes Professional Shane Harwood testing the Morecambe batsman Morecambe Captain Phil Dennison on the attack against St Annes Professional Shane Harwood Phil Dennison drives Stephen Twist through the covers on his way to 56 St Annes opening batsman Gareth Evans playing a forward defensive against the Morecambe Professional Mark Orchard Stephen Twist forces Mark Orchard away

Click Here to send your comments.