ST HELENS had to settle for a draw at Lytham on Saturday.

But they only have themselves to blame after dropping a series of catches.

Gary Sheppard (2-48) and Stephen Kenny (1-25) bowled an excellent opening spell which removed Lytham's top three relatively cheaply.

But those dropped catches meant Lytham were able to reach170 all out. Top scorer Wiggins was dropped three times early in his innings but went on to make 79. Adam Friar (2-39) and Bappa Mukherjee (2-34) removed three of the middle order in two overs and Phil Roughley (3-15) and Mukherjee finished off the tail with four wickets in 14 balls. St Helens should have been facing a total of less than 100 and made heavy weather at the start losing Roughley and Horabin for 13.

Most of the other batsmen started well enough with Burrows (17) Tyms (28) Mukherjee (24) and Mackus (17) all being caught before they could settle in for a long spell and it was left to a seventh wicket partnership between Stephen Kenny (31) and Adam Friar (24) to edge the St Helens within reach of the Lytham score.

Aussie professional Sainsbury returned to bowl four maidens out of five overs at the end and St Helens had to settle for a disappointing draw.

The second team entertained Formby at Windleshaw Road with the visitors declaring on 194-5. St Helens prospects looked bleak at 24 -4 but an excellent 119-run partnership between David Lowe (77) and Daniel Massey (47) supported by captain Ian Davies (24 not out) made sure of a well earned victory.

The third team completed a successful weekend by defeating Sefton on Sunday. Ste Fell anchored the innings with a fine 73 before he became the eighth victim but a fine finish to the innings was provided by David Challenor (12) and Andrew Valentine (19 not out) to post a total of 158 all out. Fell (7-28) and Valentine (3-14) followed their top batting performances by equally successful spells with the ball and St Helens won quite easily with the visitors dismissed for 74.

This weekend the first team visit Maghull and the seconds are at home to Liverpool.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.