Fylde coast cricket round-up: Blackpool and St Annes set up cup semi-final

St Annes progressed with a three-wicket home win over Chorley, who chose to bat and saw half of their 160-7 come from a third-wicket stand of 81 between Joshua Pistorius (54) and Roshen Silva (25).

Mitch Bolus took 4-37 for St Annes, who sealed victory at 164-7 with 11 deliveries remaining.

Their innings was also built on a third-wicket partnership of 68 between Yohan De Silva, who carried his bat for 62, and captain Nathan Armstrong (28).

Blackpool progressed thanks to an 84-run defeat of Fulwood and Broughton at Stanley Park.

Josh Boyne hit 94 as Blackpool batted first and posted 181-9 from 40 overs.

In reply, Fulwood and Broughton were all out for 97 as Boyne followed up his batting efforts with 4-18.

For the second successive weekend, Saturday’s NPCL programme was wrecked by rain and only one fixture was completed.

That match saw St Annes pull further clear of the danger zone with a nine-wicket home win over bottom club Eccleston.

The Chorley side were asked to bat and were dismissed for 95 as Lukman Vahaluwala finished with 5-8.

A fourth-wicket stand of 52 between Matthew Ashcroft (27) and Martyn James Brierley (24) steadied a sinking Eccleston ship until 57-3 became 59-6, Thomas Bradley taking 3-12 from his six overs.

The St Annes target was then revised to 74, which they reached in just 13 overs for the loss of Tom Higson.

Opener De Silva hurried the game to its conclusion with an unbeaten 39 from 38 balls, sharing an unbroken stand of 56 with Nathan Bolus (23).

Fleetwood’s match at Garstang was among five abandonments as both teams claimed five points.

The visitors had dismissed the reigning champions for 139 in 39.5 overs but play was halted just 18.1 overs into the reply, with Fleetwood well placed at 68-1.

A fourth five-wicket haul of the season by professional Tiaan van Vuuren (5-32 from 13 overs) had pegged Garstang back after they chose to bat.

A slump from 118-4 to 119-7 helped put Fleetwood in the driver’s seat but their reply was quickly cut short, with opener Nathan Bend unbeaten on 32.

Blackpool restricted Longridge to 83-8 from a reduced 36 overs at Stanley Park, Jamie Thomson leading the way with figures of 3-20.

Jon Millward (15 not out) and Jake Durnell (13 not out) had put on an unbroken 28 for Longridge after they fell from 30-1 to 55-8.

Only 13 balls were possible in the Blackpool reply, during which time they had advanced to 11-0.

Lytham had to settle for a draw at St Helens Town in the Liverpool Competition First Division, having been all out for 153 in 41.2 overs after being put in.

Captain Matt Taaffe was the visitors’ top scorer with 37 and was among the victims of Matthew Bielby, who finished with 7-53 from his 14 overs.

Having lost their first wicket without scoring, Lytham added 66 for their second thanks to opener Matthew Wood (33) and Guy Roberts (27).

A good score looked to be on the cards at 126-3 but this became 129-6 and the final six men in managed a combined total of 15.

The league’s top wicket-taker, Avinash Yadav, soon had the hosts in trouble at 26-3 on his way to 6-41 from 17 overs.

This sixth haul of five wickets or more took the Indian professional to 44 for the season.

Bielby brought some solidity with his 41 but St Helens crumbled from 119-5 to 120-9, only for their final pair to hold out at 124-9 after 34 overs as both teams claimed six points.

That wasn’t enough to keep St Helens out of the bottom two, while Lytham remain fifth ahead of Saturday’s visit to rock-bottom Ainsdale.

Only one match was completed in the premier division of the Moore and Smalley Palace Shield, Great Eccleston defeating Penwortham by 36 runs.

Will Thistlethwaite hit 95 and Mohamed Nadeem 51 as Great Ecc completed a reduced 36 overs on 171-6.

Chasing a revised target of 141 in 22.3 overs, Penwortham could only reach 104-6 despite an unbroken stand of 72 between Declan Jones (35 not out) and Robbie Sumner (27 not out).

Euxton only managed 15.4 overs at Thornton Cleveleys but the leaders still came within 18 of their revised victory target.

The hosts were put in at Illawalla and reached 153-7 in 34 overs as top-scorer Joshua Sackfield, who hit nine fours in his 46, and Oliver Kyle (42) put on 55 for the second wicket.

Jack Shovelton removed all the top three, returning 3-54 from 15 overs.

Euxton’s target was reduced to 100 runs from 16 overs and they lost a wicket before scoring any, then saw captain James Bone (29) put on 50 with Hakeem Perryman (24).

After 50-1 became 59-4, Josh Rolinson taking 3-44 from eight overs, Euxton added 23 without further loss and finished with six points to TC’s four.

This stretched Euxton’s lead over second-placed Mawdesley to 18 points, while Thornton stay sixth.

Only 13 overs were possible at Morecambe, where Kirkham and Wesham reached 48-4 after being put in and Lloyd Smith took 3-24 from six overs.

K&W are six points behind Thornton Cleveleys in seventh spot ahead of their visit to Lancaster on Saturday, when TC host second-placed Mawdesley.