Fylde coast cricket review: Strugglers secure survival as champions play a key part in the promotion battle
Northern Premier Cricket League promotion and relegation issues were decided on Saturday.
Lytham and Thornton Cleveleys secured their Northern Premier Cricket League division two status after victories on Saturday’s final day of the season.
Both were among four clubs who could have dropped but Lytham’s sixth win of the campaign and TC’s eighth success ensured survival.
Lytham finished in eighth, 12 points clear of the bottom two after winning by 41 runs at Great Eccleston, where they posted 268-8 in 44 overs.
After the top three fell cheaply, Lytham’s fightback was led by Sahaan Sahaan (45), Henry Roberts (57) and top scorer Archie Banks-Smith (63).
Ben Saunders chipped in with 22 before already-relegated Great Ecc were dismissed for 227.
Will Smith (34), Alexander Rhodes (30) and Mohamed Nadeem (30) all made starts before 90-1 then became 174-7.
Tyler McGladdery (75) kept things interesting but he was the eighth man to fall as Great Ecc lost their last three wickets for as many runs, Sahaan with 4-43 and Sabbir Patel 4-66.
TC were ninth, 10 points clear of the drop zone after winning by two wickets at Morecambe.
The hosts batted first and finished their 42 overs on 151-9, having been 33-5.
Andrew Creech (41) and Stefan Dixon (32) led the recovery, adding 62 for the sixth wicket as Evan Chandler finished with 5-53.
In response, TC reached 152-8 in 40.4 overs after subsiding from 54-1 to 99-8.
Sam Curwen had made 29, Josh Borrell 22 and Josh Sackfield 17 before Dixon (6-37) left them firmly up against it.
It was Christopher Hedges (37 not out) and Chandler (17 not out) who got TC over the line though, adding an unbroken 53.
At the other end of the table, champions Fleetwood helped ensure Euxton missed out on promotion after beating them by 21 runs at Broadwater.
A low-scoring game saw Fleetwood bowled out for 99 after they had been asked to bat first.
Andy Drake top-scored with 25 but, having progressed to 73-4, the departure of Dan Salpietro (13) kickstarted a collapse which saw Fleetwood lose six wickets for 26 runs.
Nishan Peiris did most of the damage, taking 5-18, while James Bowden claimed 3-26.
However, the Euxton reply saw them dismissed for 78 as Fleetwood finished the season with 20 wins from 22 matches.
Having lost two early wickets, Euxton had recovered to 42-2 before the departure of Josh Tolley (17) saw the champions run through the rest of their batting.
Salpietro finished his sub-pro stint in style, claiming 8-41 from 13 overs with only Michael Atkinson (15) and Max Harper (12) offering any added resistance.
Euxton’s defeat meant Fulwood and Broughton joined Fleetwood in immediately returning to division one for 2027 after defeating Preston, who took the second relegation place.
In the Palace Shield, Fylde finished out of the Championship’s bottom three after a seven-wicket win over Mawdesley.
Finley Tupman took 4-35 as Mawdesley were all out for 158 before George Dolan (71 not out) and Philip Brown (35 not out) saw Fylde home.
Kirkham and Wesham also ended the division one season with victory, defeating Croston by 119 runs.
Tait Roberts-Hodgson (52), Liam Castellas (41) and Jack Mansfield (38) took them to 228 all out.
Croston’s Ty Adams claimed 4-55 before they were dismissed for 109, losing nine wickets for 59 runs as Ryan Galligan took 6-17.