DESPITE a fighting Northern Premier League best of 71 not out by Steven Croft and 52 from Mark Lomas Blackpool were well beaten by Morecambe at Stanley Park on Saturday.

Without an official toss, Blackpool elected to bat and on a feather-bed track made 174-3 from their 57 overs, probably around 60 runs short of a good target. Morecambe replied strongly and had won by six wickets at 178-4 inside 38 overs.

Blackpool began badly as Chris Barrow's off stump was sent cartwheeling in the first over by Peter Stephens without a run on the board.

And then Chris Simcock, seven, fell leg before wicket to Faruk Patel at 12-2 and Blackpool were wobbling. The innings was put back on track by a third wicket stand of102 in123 minutes by Croft and Lomas although some tight bowling did not make scoring easy.

Lomas made 52 from 122 balls with four fours before Andy Bird bowled him and that left Croft and professional Deon Kruis to add 60 for the fourth wicket.

Kruis batted as well as he has done so far in making 36 from only 34 balls with one six and four well-placed fours and Croft's 71 came from 171 balls with six fours as Blackpool closed on 174-3. Stephens was the pick of the Morecambe bowlers with a tidy1-32 from16 overs.

Morecambe's reply got off to a flying start as Mark Woodhead and Phil Dennison took advantage of some loose Blackpool bowling.

They had plundered 66 inside 10 overs when Dennison went for one shot too many to be well caught by a tumbling Dave Higham in the gully off Kruis for 29.

Woodhead continued to make hay but professional Ramesh Powar was out of sorts. And it came as no surprise when Higham bowled him for six, with probably not one of his best balls and Morecambe were 90-2.

Woodhead went on to make 733 from 95 balls with eight fours before he charged Higham and presented Martin Hackett with a routine stumping and that was 138-4.

Gareth Pedder then took advantage of the lack of a third man and made a quick 19 before Blackpool's best bowler by far, Higham, bowled him. That was 127-3 and the last of Blackpool's successes.

Tommy Clough joined his skipper Phil Thornton at the crease and while the former scored a run a-ball 27 with six fours, the latter remained static on nought.

But then he found the middle of the bat and with a swift two and two typically powerfully struck fours off Kruis, who finished with 1-99 from 14 overs, the dashed to 10 and the game was over.

Morecambe's 178-4 gave them victory by six wickets and they moved to second in the table. Blackpool meanwhile, with their fourth defeat in six completed games fell to second from bottom.

Blackpool, meanwhile, progressed to the next round of the Lancashire Cup with a 19-run victory over Wavertree.

Chris Simcock top-scored with 47 in Blackpool's 212-9 from 45 overs with Steven Croft making 29 and Chris Barrow 28. Wavertree's reply was restricted to 42 overs due to their slow over rate.

Falling 20 runs short of victory, they made a creditable 193-8 with professional Deon Kruis taking 4-27.