The great escape

Staring defeat in the face at 55-8 in reply to Netherfield's modest 148 all out, Blackpool veteran slow left arm bowler David Higham defied the Netherfield attack for 59 minutes and, with Jabir Namajee and David Cresswell as partners, successfully saw out 16 overs to earn his side a hard-fought draw.

The Blackpool top order batsmen had capitulated to a Netherfield attack led by Australian professional Geoff Foley who took 3-31.

Bracewell was the first to go, bowled by Clement for four with the total on 14; he was followed at 32 by Armstrong who had flattered to deceive with three fours in his 12 before he lofted a gentle catch to Wheatman to give Foley his first wicket.

Danson scored two before he was given out stumped off Hadwin and it was 40-3.

That became 42-4 as Cornall, 18, was leg before wicket to Foley and it was 42-5 as Croft was trapped in front of his wicket by Clement for one.

Skipper Rudra Singh was marginally run out without scoring and as the final 20 overs, commenced, Bartholomew, five, was adjudged leg before wicket and it was an unpretentious 50-7.

Then with 16 overs to go Marcus Sharp prodded forward to Hadwin to be caught at slip by Otway for three and at 55-8 the game looked as good as over.

Netherfield must have thought so too for they, rather extravagantly, posted five slips and two gullies for three overs and by the time they reverted to a more orthodox field Namajee and Higham both had their eye in.

Namajee, having survived for 47 balls, then gloved a catch to Otway at forward short leg and a limping Cresswell, with Cornall as his runner, came to the wicket with 38 balls remaining.

Meanwhile, David Higham had thwarted the Netherfield attack and garnered some runs into the bargain.

And try as they might, Netherfield, despite numerous bowling changes, could not dislodge him as he struck one six and four fours from the 46 balls that he faced in making a top score of 27 not out.

David Cresswell stuck with him for 20 minutes and repelled all 17 balls that were sent his way to earn Blackpool a draw on 103-9 and three points which at one time looked most unlikely.

Earlier in the day Netherfield had lost wickets steadily.

Lewis, seven and dropped by Singh on four, was the first to go when he drilled a catch back to Namajee.

Sharp then accounted for Moyes, caught at slip by Danson for seven, and Foley, caught at point by Cornall for 19 to leave last season's champions struggling at 58-3.

Simon Dutton and Simon Little added 35 for the fourth wicket before Sharp struck again, having his Cumberland county captain Dutton caught by Higham at slip for 45 made from 71 balls with seven fours and one six. Namajee was then brought back into the attack and, together with Singh, took the remaining six wickets.

He had Little, 23, caught by Armstrong at deep mid-on, bowled Dalzell for 12, had Welbourne caught on the deep mid-wicket boundary for a duck and bowled Wheatman for 15 to end with 5-68, his first senior five wicket haul for the club.

Singh chipped in by having Otway caught and bowled for two and Clement caught behind by Bartholomew for nine to close the Netherfield innings at 148.

Blackpool set about their calamitous reply which but for the determined efforts of Higham would have ended in total disaster.

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