BLACKPOOL had visitors Kendal rocking from the very first ball of the Bay 96.9 Northern Premier League game at Stanley Park on Saturday (June 17).

Marcus Sharp had opener Casey Mee leg before wicket to set the tone of the innings in which all the Blackpool bowlers held sway over the Kendal batsmen.

As such Kendal could only manage a modest 141-8 from their 60 overs and in reply Blackpool paced their victory charge to perfection to win by eight wickets with six of the final 20 overs remaining.

After Mee had gone skipper Rudra Singh removed the other opener talented teenager David Barnes for one when he was well held at slip by Lomas.

The impressive Terry Hunte and professional and captain Ross Veenstra then added 47 in 52 minutes with Hunte doing most of the scoring.

He had just stroked two delightful boundaries from Darren Walton's bowling when Steve Mercer had him caught off an outside edge by wicketkeeper Kevin Hoggarth for 33.

Next ball Mercer trapped Dave Fallows back on his stumps and Kendal were rocking at 51-4. It became 68-5 when Steve Cooper was caught at slip by Danson off Sharp for 10 but then a strangely subdued Veenstra and Andrew Fawcett put on 53 in 77 minutes.

The partnership was broken when Stephen Croft produced a peach of a delivery to send Fawcett's stump cartwheeling and he was gone for 20.

Veenstra soldiered on to 65 and when he was out in the 57th over, leg before wicket to Sharp, he had faced 144 balls and hit only three fours.

Croft bowled Potts for three, Dugdale was not out seven and Sharp returned 3-26 from 20 very tidy overs as Kendal ended their innings on 141-8.

Blackpool got off to almost an equally bad start for with only four runs on the board Chris Cornall, nought, was attempting to avoid a ball from Veenstra when it struck his elbow and rebounded onto the stumps and it was 4-1.

Martin Pickles made only eight before he lofted a gentle catch to Hunte off Potts and Blackpool were a perilous 19-2.

But that was the extent of Kendal's success as Mark Lomas and Richard Lamb fashioned a match-winning partnership. Lomas led the way in the early stages, but Lamb accelerated towards the end as the pair put on 122 in 124 minutes.

Kendal tried seven bowlers and it was the last of these who suffered most, youngster Mark Barrington being struck for 14 in his one over, the last of the match, as Lomas finished on 61 not out from 124 balls with eight fours and Lamb finished with 55 not out from 116 balls with one six and six fours.

Blackpool reached 142-2 to give them victory by eight wickets and 12 much needed points in their efforts to move back up the table. The final score left Blackpool 142-2 and Kendal 141-8.