Fylde coast weekend cricket review: Northern League, Lytham, Palace Shield

It was a third successive defeat for the faltering Stanley Park club, who had been dismissed for under 100 in their previous two matches and faced that prospect again after reaching 87-3 but then losing four wickets without further addition.

Number six Josh Boyne held the innings together with an unbeaten 41, including six fours, and saw Blackpool past 100 with ninth-wicket partner Chris Baines after the hosts had been put in to bat.

They eventually recovered to 147-9 from their 50 overs, St Annes skipper Matt Grindley continuing his fine season with 4-54 from 17 overs and Tom Higson taking 3-29 from 14.

That takes Grindley’s total for the season to 38 wickets, just five short of his 2016 total after bowling barely half the overs he sent down last year.

The rain then intervened to leave St Annes chasing a reduced target of 115, which they reached in 25 overs for the loss of six wickets.

The return of old favourite Atiq Uz-Zaman boosted a strong top-order and he put on 56 for the second wicket with top scorer AM Durrani (37 from 40 balls).

St Annes then stumbled from 91-2 to 113-6 but the visitors had the wickets in hand to get over the line, despite guest professional Ockert Erasmus taking 4-48 from his 12 overs.

Blackpool slip a spot to fifth, with Fleetwood just 10 points behind them after having the better of a rain-hit draw with champions Leyland at Broadwater.

Fleetwood chose to bat and reached 184 all out in 47.4 overs thanks largely to the third-wicket partnership between wicketkeeper Dean Bell, the game’s top scorer with 67, and professional Neels Bergh, who made 51.

The South African was among three victims for Andrew Jacques but the star bowler was Fleetwood’s Joseph McCluskie, who removed three of Leyland’s top five for ducks on his way to 4-38 from 13 overs as the visitors struggled to 67-6 from the 24 overs available.

Leyland’s dropped points enabled Netherfield to stretch their lead to 16 points with a crushing eight-wicket win in their Cumbrian derby at Barrow.

Despite Saturday’s weather, every first division match reached a conclusion bar that between bottom two Kendal and Morecambe.

Blackpool have won through to the Northern Premier League’s T20 finals day with Leyland, Netherfield and Penrith following Sunday’s final round of group matches. Full details to follow.

Lytham could not extend their winning run in the Liverpool competition to five games despite having Lancashire captain Steven Croft in their ranks for his home debut against Wallasey.

The Wirral visitors restricted Lytham to 132 in 41.3 overs, paving the way for victory by two wickets.

Taylor Cornall continued his fine batting form after Lytham were put in, the opener top-scoring with 53 from 102 deliveries (five fours), his sixth half-century of the season.

Cornall shared an opening stand of 40 with New Zealander Michael Guptill-Bunce (20) but then Croft, who had played his part in the previous Saturday’s outstanding win at Bootle, hit two boundaries before being dismissed for eight on third Lytham appearance.

That set the trend for the rest of the innings as only one other Lytham player (Toby Lester) reached double figures and they had struggled to 117 by the time Cornall was seventh man out.

Andrew Beaver had Croft caught on his way to 4-46 from 16 overs, while Tharindu Kawshal Paskuwal Handi claimed 3-21 from 7.3.

Greg Beaver then got the Wallasey reply off to a fine start with 47 from 77 balls but Ryan Maddock kept Lytham in the hunt with his best-ever return in the competition of 6-33 from eight overs.

Maddock reduced Wallasey from 61-1 to 69-4 and their hopes remained alive when Greg Beaver was seventh out with 18 still required for victory.

However, they managed only one more success and Wallasey sealed victory at 133-8 in 32 overs.

Lytham remain seventh in the ECB premier league.

Cornall scored his second half-century of the weekend to help Lytham win through to the quarter-finals of the LCB Knockout with a seven-wicket win over Egerton in Bolton.

The opener’s 63 helped the visitors to make light work of chasing down their target of 179.

Having been put in, Egerton were dismissed with three balls of their 45 overs remaining.

Their innings owed everything to a third-wicket stand of 120 between Mahala Udawatta, whose 74 from 95 balls included eight fours, and Marcus Pratt (32).

But when they were parted, Edgerton slid from 140-2 to 149-5 and then lost their final four wickets with the score on 179.

There were three wickets apiece for Ryan Maddock, Ben Saunders and Jack Saunders.

Lytham’s innings was also propelled by a third-wicket stand as the prolific Cornall put on 96 with Matthew Taaffe, who went on to reach 56 not out in an unbroken partnership of 47 with Josh Holden as the visitors reached a winning 182-3 with 11 balls left.

Lytham visit Burnley CC in the last eight in three weeks.

The rain devastated Saturday’s Palace Shield programme, with only two matches in the top three divisions involving Fylde coast clubs reaching a conclusion.

Both were in division one as South Shore and Fylde both suffered home defeat after being dismissed cheaply batting first.

Shore missed out on a chance to climb into the top two as Longridge 2 defeated them by seven wickets to stretch their lead at the top.

The only premier division match not abandoned saw Fulwood and Broughton go top with a nine-wicket win over Torrisholme.

Moore and Smalley Palace Shield results

Premier Division: Moore and Smalley Palace Shield results:

Premier division: Fulwood and Broughton (70-1) beat Torrisholme (66) by nine wickets

All other matches abandoned

Division One: Fylde (81, P Winder 6-6)) lost to New Longton (82-2 by eight wickets, South Shore (67, A Simpson 6-33, O Lewis 3-11) lost to Longridge 2 (68-3, J Simpson 54no) by seven wickets.

All other matches abandoned