St Annes sunk by a 'takeover'

Chorley won the toss, batted and made 233-5 in 57.4 of their scheduled 60 overs, the last 14 balls being lost to rain.

In reply St Annes fought a rearguard action down the order but in the end could just not hold out against some good Chorley bowling and were dismissed for 129 to lose by 104 runs with just one over remaining.

It was a result which completely reversed the clubs' respective league positions, with Chorley going second and St Annes sinking to fourth!

Neil Bannister got the Chorley innings off to a bright start with a quick-fire 21 before he was leg before wicket to Joe Davies with the total on 32.

Tom Smith made eight before Davies bowled him to leave Chorley on 40-2. But that was the limit of St Annes' success as skipper Roland Horridge and Nigel Heaton put on 140 runs in 121 minutes against some very ordinary St Annes bowling.

That is to take nothing away from the batting as both players found the boundary eight times and, although both had escapes -- Horridge off a sharp chance to wicketkeeper Duncan Whalley and Heaton from an attempted stumping -- they were largely untroubled as they went on their merry way.

Heaton was the first to go when he had made 68 from 125 balls. Davies had returned to the attack and he had Heaton driving to extra cover where Dave Callaghan took an excellent tumbling catch low down. Jim Fazackerley came to the wicket and he kept up the tempo, hitting one huge six into the adjacent gardens, before he tried once too often and was bowled by Callaghan for 17.

Horridge, meanwhile, had progressed to 95. But for the 138th ball he received, and with rain beginning to fall, he had his head in the air as Davies neatly rearranged the stumps. No more runs were scored and Chorley left the field in heavy rain with the total on 233-5 and with Joe Davies, the best of the St Annes bowlers, having returned 4-53.

St Annes began badly in reply and four wickets were down with only 29 runs on the board. Adrian Darlington, five, and Gareth Evans, seven, were both caught by Neil Senior off the bowling of Josh Marquet and Iqbal Patel respectively. And Marquet accounted for Callaghan, superbly caught and bowled for 11, and Davies, adjudged leg before wicket for three.

Russ Bradley had two lives in getting to eight but third time not so lucky as he fell lbw to Patel.

Adam Cotton and Sean Bickerdike showed some resistance and added 40 runs for the sixth wicket before the latter was caught behind off Smith.

Cotton followed him 24 runs later when an injudicious shot saw Bannister take a catch at wide mid-on and he was gone for 41 made from 67 balls with seven fours.

Thereafter it was a case of serious rearguard action for St Annes. And it just failed for at 7.57pm, with the final ball of the penultimate over, Marquet took his fifth wicket when he had Whalley plumb in front of his stumps for 16. By then a stubborn Neil Bradley had fallen lbw to part-time bowler Fazackerley, and Marquet had Dave Taylor caught at second slip by Horridge. Marquet had taken 5-55, St Annes were all out for 129 -- still 104 runs short of the target -- and Chorley took 15 points to leap-frog over them in the league table.

SCORECARD: St Annes 129 all out Chorley 233-5

ST ANNES Fourths put up a brave show against Comrades CC in spite of being ravaged by injuries and absences, and with four of their ten men carrying bad injuries -- that of Mick Renshaw sadly causing him to retire hurt.

Paul and Ben McCabe gave them a fine start withsome penetrative opening overs but, apart from a 13-over spell of spin from Dave Gubbins who had little luck, there was not much else and Comrades declared at 210-3.

The McCabes opened the St Annes reply and looked entirely comfortable as Paul compiled 43 and Ben 21. Matt Livingstone briefly looked dangerous but, apart from a late flurry from Dave Gubbins (19), Comrades' young spinner Hibbert wrapped up the innings with four quick wickets as St Annes were all out for 134.