Fylde coast cricket round-up: Blackpool CC reduce leaders' advantage

The defending champions sit second in the table, 34 points behind the leaders and with a game in hand thanks to their six-wicket win at the Riverside.

Saturday’s showers meant the game was reduced to 30 overs a side with Garstang asked to bat first.

They completed their allocation on 150-7, a score set up by five of their top six all reaching double figures.

Michael Walling had reached 14 before being forced to retire not out as fellow opener Michael Wellings added 16.

Punit Bisht made 31 and Matthew Crowther 24 but it was former Morecambe captain Ryan Pearson who top-scored with 40.

Jamie Thomson led the Blackpool bowling with figures of 4-32 as Alex Ryder (1-17), Matt Grindley (1-26) and Naushad Shaikh (1-39) also picked up wickets.

In reply, Blackpool took victory by reaching 151-4 with eight balls in hand.

Kasim Munir (2) fell early to Rizwan Patel before Joel Derham removed Josh Boyne (10) and professional Shaikh (16).

He then picked up a third wicket by accounting for Blackpool opener Tomas King, who made the day’s top score of 57 before he was dismissed.

Dylan Henshall (41 not out) and Ben Howarth (15 not out) then took Blackpool to victory despite Derham taking 3-38 and Patel 1-27.

St Annes were also victorious as they leapfrogged Longridge and climbed into the top four with victory at Newsham.

The workload was shared around as St Annes compiled 205-8 from 35 overs.

All of the top six made more than 20 with Yohan De Silva hitting 44 and skipper Nathan Armstrong adding 30.

Tom Higson (27), Lukman Vahaluwala (24), Nathan Bolus (23) and Nathan Bend (23) also chipped in as Longridge’s Jake Durnell took 4-37.

The Longridge innings saw them reduced to 29-5 before eventually being all out for 73.

Vahaluwala claimed three early wickets on his way to figures of 4-16, Harry Birkman finished with 4-25 and Higson claimed 2-17.

In the Moore and Smalley Palace Shield top flight, leaders Fleetwood breezed to a seven-wicket win at Preston.

Yet again, it was the Fleetwood bowlers who provided the foundation for victory following a dominant performance with the ball.

Having chosen to field first at West Cliff, Fleetwood ran through the Preston batting to dismiss them for only 59.

Sajid Patel’s 28 was comfortably the top score with Harun Hendi (11 not out) the only other batter making more than eight.

Jeremy Davies proved the leading performer with the ball, claiming 5-6 from nine overs.

Zac Corcoran finished with 3-30 and Declan Clerkin 2-10 for a Fleetwood team who responded with 60-3.

All three wickets fell to Imran Patel (3-19) as Charlie Clark (20), Atiq Uz-Zaman (14) and Clerkin (0) were the men to go.

Adam Sharrocks finished 10 not out and Harry McAleer nine out as Fleetwood sit 36 points clear at the top.

Morecambe’s loss to Eccleston enabled Great Eccleston to reclaim second place as they won by 49 runs in a low-scoring game at Croston.

Great Eccleston batted first and subsided from 52-3 to 81 all out despite 39 from Mohamed Nadeem.

Joseph Barker did the damage, taking 6-19 for a Croston side who were then all out for 32 in reply as Phil Booth claimed 5-11.

Thornton Cleveleys also picked up a win in seeing off Penwortham by 50 runs at Middleforth Green.

Thorntons batted first and finished their rain-reduced 25 overs on 131-9, Ryan Adderley making 24.

Penwortham’s Charlie Parker took 6-27 but his side collapsed to 81 all out in reply with Anthony Ellison claiming 5-25.

Kirkham and Wesham could not make it a perfect day, however, losing by 68 runs to Torrisholme.

Andrew Hogarth took 3-40 in Torrisholme’s 193-7 and then made 42 as K&W were all out for 125, Charlie Parkinson finishing with 7-34.

Division 1A saw Fylde post a 48-run victory in their match against Rufford.

Dan Smith (52) and Usama Abrar (41) helped them to 189-6 before Abrar took 4-33 as Rufford were all out for 141.

Division two brought a 70-run win for Wrea Green at Norcross despite being bowled out for 117 batting first.

Finn Peel claimed 4-29 for Norcross, who were rolled over for 47 with Jack Jones taking 7-24.

In the Liverpool Competition First Division, Lytham made it two wins in a week against Rainford after beating them by seven wickets.

The batters had done the damage seven days earlier but it was the bowlers who impressed on Saturday.

After asking Rainford to bat first, Lytham dismissed them for 87 as the last nine wickets fell for only 29 runs.

Toby Lester (1-28) removed Jason Login (2) but Rainford had progressed to 58-1 before wilting against Akash Vashist and Jack Saunders.

Vashist began the collapse by dismissing Craig Woods (13), followed by the wickets of Ehren Agarwol (0), Mark Potter (4), Liam Gaskell (0) and Ian Fenney (0) to take 5-18.

Saunders accounted for top scorer Matthew Bailey (32) as well as Paul Farrar (3), Marcus Atkinson (0) and John Dotters (11) in recording 4-31.

Lytham’s reply saw them finish on 89-3 with Tom Hessey (16), Myles Child (22) and Guy Roberts (22) the men out.

Vashist finished 21 not out and Matt Taaffe six not out as Lytham picked up 20 points to remain in pole position.