Fylde coast cricket review: St Annes' semi-final bid ends emphatically

Nathan Armstrong’s players went down by 63 runs against Northern Premier Cricket League leaders Kendal on Saturday, ending a four-game winning run in all competitions.

Twenty-four hours later, they exited the ECB National Club Championship with a nine-wicket defeat at Richmondshire in their quarter-final.

Kendal batted first at Vernon Road, where they completed their 50 overs on 185-9 as Max Winskill top-scored with 62.

Winskill’s top order colleagues all made starts but four wickets for Tom Higson had seen Kendal slip from 81-2 to 107-6.

Winskill and Chris Miller (11) added 43 until both were out with the score on 150 before the ninth wicket fell four runs later.

However, St Annes were frustrated by the last pair of Louis Backhouse (20 not out) and Matthew Park (12 not out) as they added an unbroken 31.

Higson finished with 5-41 for St Annes, who were all out for 122 in reply.

Higson and Yohan De Silva put on 37 for the first wicket but, once the former fell for 19, they lost seven wickets for 34 runs in collapsing to 71-7.

Six of those were claimed by Miller, who took a seventh when dismissing Mitch Bolus (36) after a stand of 48 with James Bradley.

That gave him 7-42 and Kendal a maximum 15 points, keeping them on the same points haul as Chorley at the top.

Defeat dropped St Annes to 10th in the NPCL, albeit well clear of the bottom two, ahead of derby day against Blackpool at Vernon Road on Saturday.

St Annes’ batting subsided again on Sunday, when they were skittled for 112 inside 32 overs at Richmondshire.

Another collapse played its part as Armstrong’s men went from 56-2 to 85-8 as Connor Blaxall-Hill finished with 4-29.

De Silva (24) top-scored for St Annes, who saw Richmondshire breeze to victory by reaching 115-1 in only 19 overs.

Gary Pratt (57) was the only man dismissed when he was run out, ending a stand of 100 with fellow opener Robert Carr (44 not out).

It was a tough day all round for the Fylde coast’s NPCL clubs as Blackpool and Fleetwood were also beaten.

Blackpool lost further ground in the title race with a 61-run defeat to the reigning champions, Garstang, at Stanley Park.

Openers Luke Smith (74) and Michael Walling (36) led the way despite Josh Boyne (3-75) helping reduce them to 173-6.

Hugo Croft (41 not out) was joined by Ian Walling, who hit 38 not out from only 17 balls in a stand of 59 as Garstang reached 232-6.

The Blackpool reply saw them all out for 171, thanks mainly to Punit Bisht who made 93 before becoming one of four wickets for Garstang skipper Danny Gilbert (4-34).

Fleetwood’s batting floundered as they went down by 109 runs against visitors Netherfield.

They failed to reach 50, being dismissed for 49 in 27.3 overs with Tiaan van Vuuren (11) and Jeremy Davies (10) their only batters in double figures.

Samuel Medhurst finished with 5-22 from 13 overs to give Netherfield maximum points after they had reached 158-8 when batting first.

Josh Dixon had made 31 before Netherfield skipper Ben Barrow led by example, making 59.

His dismissal was the start of a collapse that saw Netherfield lose their last five wickets for only 22 runs as van Vuuren claimed 3-56.

It leaves Fleetwood eighth in the division ahead of Saturday’s trip to Leyland.

There was also defeat for Lytham in the Liverpool and District Competition First Division

They hosted second-placed Spring View and saw their visitors depart with a six-wicket win.

Spring View’s win was set up by their bowlers, who dismissed Lytham for 148 after they were asked to bat first.

Matthew Wood made 24 but two wickets for Marc Birch reduced Lytham to 33-3.

A stand of 55 followed between Avinash Yadav (27) and skipper Matt Taaffe (31), but both fell as Lytham’s 88-3 became 102-7.

There was some defiance from the lower order, led by Richard Openshaw (23), as Muhammad Ashraf finished with 4-48.

The Spring View reply saw them recover from 5-2 to take victory by reaching 150-4.

Nathan Ashford (14) put on 49 for the third wicket with Suleman Khan who, after seeing Ashraf (18) fall with the score on 83, added an unbroken 67 with David Gornall.

He hit 50 not out from only 40 balls as Khan top-scored with an undefeated 56.

It doesn’t get any easier for Lytham this weekend as the fifth-placed club travel to leaders Newton-le-Willows on Saturday.

As for the Moore and Smalley Palace Shield, only Great Eccleston claimed victory in the Premier Division.

They won by 105 runs at a Mawdesley team who started the day in the second promotion place.

Alexander Rhodes made 45 in Great Ecc’s 187-9 before Mawdesley were dismissed for 82 with Nisanth Nithian claiming 5-21.

Great Ecc are sixth as they prepare to host high-flying Carnforth on Saturday.

Carnforth saw off Thornton Cleveleys by 64 runs after Chris Parry (86) had top-scored in their 203-8.

TC’s Joshua Sackfield had taken 4-24 before making 56 as they were all out for 136, chasing a revised target of 201.

It leaves them seventh going into a home match with bottom club Morecambe.

Kirkham and Wesham were also beaten, losing a low-scoring game to Vernon Carus by 10 runs.

Justin Banks had claimed 7-15 as Vernons were all out for 84, only for K&W to be dismissed for 74.

K&W are eighth as they make the trip to fifth-placed Penwortham.