KENDAL captain and professional Ross Veenstra won the toss and elected to bat in this Bay 96.9 Northern Premier League fixture on Saturday (June 4).

And it appeared to have been a poor decision when St Annes professional Dave Callaghan had opener, Steven Cooper, caught behind by Sean Bickerdike for nought with only one run on the board.

But after that disasterous start came a period of dominance for the Kendal batters who fought hard for their runs.

However, it wasn't to last too long and the second Kendal wicket fell at 43 when David Barnes was trapped lbw by Dave Callaghan for a dogged 15.

Terry Hunte and Ross Veenstra added a furter 49 runs for the third wicket before captain Veenstra was run out for four.

Despite his low score, Veenstra played a sensible innings and had been content to play a watching brief while Hunte was scoring heavily at the other end.

Hunte was eventually run out for 89 to leave Kendal on 133-4.

He batted impressively for 129 minutes, facing 106 balls. During his innings he amassed 11 fours and two sixes.

Half the Kendal side were dismissed with the score on just 167 when David Fallows was clean bowled by left arm seamer Steven Twist for 33 in his second bowling spell. Nevertheless, no further wickets fell and Alan Fawcett and Paul Dodds were left unbeaten with 29 and 7 respectively with the score on 194-5. All-rounder Adrian Darlington put a brake on the Kendal run rate with some frugal bowling.

Darlington returned to the pavilion after bowling 11 overs for a miserly 18 runs.

St Annes captain Russ Bradley used five different bowlers in various combinations to contain the Kendal batsmen.

He was assisted by the fact that Kendal lost four overs due to rain.

A large Lakeland downpour put an end to the proceedings during the tea-interval and both sides had to settle for four points each.

After three away games St Annes return to Vernon Road this weekend to play hosts to Leyland.

Former St Annes captain Brian Tennant returns to his former club as Leyland captain.

Nineteen points separates the two clubs in the league and, while Leyland have a useful pace attack in Tennant, Stephen and Paul Haydock, St Annes have a strong side and visitors could see them record their third win of the season.