ST ANNES won their eighth Vaux Northern League match of the season on Saturday (July 31) in a nip and tuck affair against Morecambe by three runs.

Put in to bat, St Annes lost their first wicket at six when Adrian Darlington was caught by Ashwell Prince off Gareth Pedder for four runs.

Dave Callaghan was trapped lbw by Peter Stephens for 16 to leave St Annes 35-2.

Six runs later, Bobby Denning was caught by Mark Woodhead off Gulam Maje for 17.

Then Steve Twist and his captain Russ Bradley redressed the balance with a 77 runs partnership for the fourth wicket.

The former, who had required a runner, was run out for 32.

The fifth St Annes wicket fell at 149 when wicket-keeper Duncan Whalley was caught by Nick Milner off Maje for 22.

Russ Bradley departed eight runs later, stumped by Damien Gudgeon off Maje for 52.

He batted for 84 minutes, faced 77 balls and hit 6 fours.

With the score on 167-7 Joe Davies became Maje's fourth victim, being caught by John Eccles for four runs.

Neil Bradley was run out on the last ball of the St Annes innings which closed on 170-8.

Gulam Maje was the pick of the Morecambe bowling attack, taking 4-36 from 13.

In reply, Morecambe made an attempt to go for the runs.

They lost their first wicket at 19 when Mark Woodhead was caught and bowled by Dave Callaghan for ten.

Five runs later Nick Milner was bowled by Callaghan for nine.

Morecambe professional Ashwell Prince was caught and bowled by Callaghan for 26 which left the home side 63-3.

Half the Morecambe side were dismissed for 93 when Tommy Clough was caught by Bobby Denning off Steve Twist's shorter run because of his injury for 21.

Then Morecambe captain Phil Thornton and John Eccles shared a sixth wicket partnership of 61 to put Morecambe back in the driving seat at 154-6.

Thornton became Denning's second catch off Callaghan for 20.

John Eccles departed 8 runs later bowled by Joe Davies in his second spell for 45.

His truculent innings only lasted 28 minutes and he hit 2 sixes and 5 fours off 28 balls.

The last three Morecambe wickets only produced 5 runs which saw Gulam Maje run out for 5 with Morecambe 4 runs short of victory. Dave Callaghan was the pick of the St Annes bowling attack, taking 5-70 from 21-2 overs.

This Saturday (Aug 7) St Annes return to travel to Vernon Road to play fifth-placed Kendal.

Kendal have only lost three games all season and will give St Annes a formidable challenge.

Their South African professional Ross Veenstra topped the league batting averages last season.

And in 1994 Terry Hunte beat Bill Alley's runs scored record of 1953 when he finished the season with 6 runs more at 1,351.

On top of this, they have two spinners in Richard Ellwood and Andrew Wilson.

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