Fylde coast cricket: Consecutive defeats for league leaders

Having lost to Blackpool on Saturday, the Broadwater players went down by 25 runs in their game at Longridge on Monday.

That loss, combined with Netherfield’s win against Garstang, means Fleetwood are only 21 points clear of the Cumbrians who also have a game in hand.

Bowlers were largely on top at Longridge, where the hosts chose to bat first and posted 156-9.

Will Reader (2-17) and Declan Clerkin (1-38) struck early on in reducing Longridge to 32-3.

Zac Christie and Rob Hollinghurst then put on the day’s highest stand of 49 until the latter was dismissed by Jameel Stuart for 16.

He picked up four more wickets, including that of Christie (54), in finishing with 5-37 before Matt Siddall (1-44) collected a late scalp.

Fleetwood’s reply ended with them all out for 131 from only 38.1 overs.

Having seen Andy Drake dismissed for 29, Fleetwood had reached 79-3 before losing their last seven wickets for 52 runs.

Stuart made 27 and Charlie Clark 14 as Jake Durnell followed up six wickets against St Annes on Saturday with 5-36.

However, Blackpool continued their late bid for a top-four spot with a fourth win from five.

They moved into fifth place thanks to a five-wicket defeat of Euxton, leaving them 10 points behind Leyland in fourth with three games left.

Euxton had opted to bat first at Stanley Park, where they completed their innings on 122-9.

Matt Grindley (2-18) took early wickets as Euxton slipped to 19-3 before skipper James Bone (44) led a recovery.

He fell to Josh Boyne (2-46), while Jamie Thomson (3-22) and Geeth Kumara (2-34) took the other wickets to fall.

In response, Blackpool only needed 24.1 overs to reach their target as they made 123-5.

Dylan Henshall (0) and Andrew Needham (1) were out as they were reduced to 2-2.

However, Kumara rallied with 13 fours and a six seeing him finish 75 not out from only 65 balls in helping Blackpool to maximum points.