Fylde coast cricket round-up: Blackpool's home win as St Annes suffer first defeat

After completing a clean sweep of their Fylde coast rivals in the opening group stage of this summer’s 40-over competition, St Annes were beaten by 46 runs at Woodhill Lane.

The Level One Gold A group match had seen Morecambe asked to bat first and they were 181 all out in 39 overs.

Mitch Bolus, Ryan Ayres, Tom Higson and Thomas Bradley all collected wickets as the hosts were reduced to 71-4.

It was then that the game’s crucial partnership took hold as Gareth Pedder and Alex Briggs added 65 for the fifth wicket.

That ended when Briggs (23) fell to Curtis Fletcher before Matt Yeadon set to work among the lower order.

He picked up the wickets of Pedder (60) and Kieran Moffat (21) on his way to 4-26.

In reply, St Annes faced an amended target of 137 from 39 overs.

It proved beyond them however as they could only reach 90-7 in 20 overs before play ended.

Openers Nathan Bolus and Higson had put on 29 for the first wicket, only for St Annes to lose seven wickets for 43 runs.

Bolus (8) was first to go, falling victim to Liam Moffat who also accounted for Nathan Armstrong (10), Mohammed Nadeem (14) and Richard Staines (7) on his way to figures of 4-36.

Higson was the joint top scorer with 14, while Ayres (2) and Ben Reader (1) also fell cheaply.

Bradley (10 not out) and Yeadon (five not out) were there at the close as St Annes fell short.

In the Gold B group, there was victory for Blackpool as they saw off Netherfield by 41 runs in another revised run chase.

Batting first at Stanley Park, Blackpool made 181-6 from 37 overs.

A solid start then brought the losses of Syed Kazmi (18), Sam Dutton (25) and Ben Howarth (4) as they slipped to 57-3.

That was the signal for Tomas King and Josh Boyne to join forces as they added 87 for the fourth wicket.

Both scored briskly before Boyne was out for 33 from only 36 deliveries faced.

It was King who led the Blackpool batting, reaching 82 from 76 balls before he became Samuel Medhurst’s third victim.

Chasing a revised target of 138 from 40 overs, Netherfield were 96-7 from 19.5 overs when play ended.

Chris Baines (2-22) and Matt Grindley (2-4) did the damage as Netherfield slumped to 26-4.

Though Bradley Earl (32) and Theo Gallagher (26 not out) staged a reovery of sorts, King (2-22) and Arran Lewin (1-30) also picked up wickets to give Blackpool victory.

Fleetwood and Lytham both had afternoons to forget in their respective Silver group outings.

In group A, Fleetwood went down by seven wickets as Lancaster chased an amended target.

Joseph Davis’ 38 not out had helped Fleetwood to 99-9 from their 36 overs, Ben Simm (4-13) and Laurie Atkinson (3-17) being Lancaster’s star performers in the field.

Lancaster were set a target of 55 from 36 overs and used only 22 of them in reaching 59-3, Steven Fisher 22 not out.

Group B saw Lytham lose to Longridge by nine wickets at Newsham.

Tom Jefferson’s 30 helped Lytham to 91-8 from 36 overs but the home side, set a revised target of 69, secured victory for the loss of only one wicket.