DROPPED catches cost St Helens dear on Saturday as Lytham overhauled their first innings total of 171 all out with two overs to go.

Roger Burrows (39), Steve Kenny (36), Bappa Mukherjee (20) and Adam Friar (20) were the top scorers but too many batsmen sold their wickets cheaply and the score went from 125-3 to 171 all out in the space of 14 overs.

Despite this, St Helens were still in with a great chance at 140-8 with 10 overs left but failed to claim those last two wickets which would have kept them in the promotion race.

Mukherjee (4-26) and Friar (2-58) were the best of the bowlers with Sheppard and Kenny taking one each.

The Sunday game against Bolton was a bit of an anti-climax especially after Bolton took their score to 246 to take the game out of the reach of St Helens and kill the game as a contest. Mukherjee (3-51) and Friar (3-58) were again the most successful of the home bowlers.

The lack of Phil Roughley and Ian Mackus, both injured, meant that St Helens had to settle for a draw at 159-4 with Bappa Mukherjee taking the opportunity to make his highest score of the season at 82 not out and Darren Tyms (32) joining Bappa and Ian Mackus in reaching 500 for the season.

With the first team at Newton-le-Willows on Saturday the second team will have the privilege of playing the last match of the Millennium at Windleshaw Road.

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