IT was tale of triumph and disaster on Saturday as Motors beat high flying Blackpool at Stanley Park while Leyland were skittled out for just 35 at home to Chorley and Preston were defeated at Kendal after they could only manage 54 after shooting out the hosts for 83.

Motors' amazing victory came, incredibly, after they only scored 115 with Ashraf top scoring with 59. Stephen Croft taking 4-32 and Oliver Newby 4-37.

But Blackpool had three ducks from the first four batsmen and only Stephen Croft, 33, kept them anywhere near reaching the target. It was 95-9 when the last pair, Martin Hackett, seven not out, and Marcus Sharp, 13, came together. But, needing six from the final over, a superb throw from the deep ran Sharp out and Motors had won by two runs.

A devastating performance by former Motors professional Stephen John saw him produce the best-ever bowling analysis by a Chorley player in the Northern League of nine wickets for just 12 runs as Leyland were skittled out for just 35.

The game lasted little longer than a football match as John triggered the collapse with two wickets in the first over. The Fox Lane side looked all at sea as John trapped Patel lbw on the crease and Rimmer top edged an ugly hook. In his second over, John clipped Vahakswala's off bail. The Pakistani then put himself on a hat-trick and having had a strong lbw shout on the hat-trick ball turned down, produced arguably the delivery of the season to uproot Koortzen's leg stump.

This left Leyland at 22 for 7 and John with figures of 7 for 2, and the end soon came with Mawdesley interrupting John's march to claim the ninth wicket as Leyland were embarrassingly dismissed in 21 overs.

Chorley, despite losing a couple of wickets, made light of the modest target to wrap up 12 points by 3.20pm.

The results leave Motors still anchored at the bottom of the table with Leyland two places above them and Preston a further two places higher.