IT was very much a case of swinging in the train for Bootle batsman John Hitchmough at Vernon Road on Sunday in his side's Lancashire Cup quarter final against holder St Annes.

Many of his hard-hit eight fours and three sixes came with heavy rain falling as the umpires manfully stayed out in the middle in appalling conditions.

There was a loss of one over near the end of the Bootle innings but they totalled 192-5 in 44 overs with Hitchmough the main contributor with 79 from 88 balls.

In reply, St Annes could only muster 139 all out to lose to last year's beaten finalists by 53 runs.

Bootle opener Bean went early for four but then Hitchmough and Iain Cockbain added 76 in 18 overs.

Adam Cotton sent back Cockbain for 17 and later added Molloy for nine, while in between Darlington bowled Hitchmough to have Bootle worried at 125-4.

Australian Adam Warren, 36 not out, and Jamie Keggin, 29, then put on 65 in 11 overs before Baptiste had the latter superbly caught by Bickerdike.

After an early tea the Bootle innings closed at 192-5.

St Annes started badly when professional Eldine Baptiste was yorked by the first ball of the second over bowled by Matt Parkinson.

And once fellow opener Darlington went to an excellent catch by Bean for 13 St Annes lost wickets regularly.

Harrison was bowled for three, Bobby Denning made a useful 36 before he was leg before wicket to Iain Cockbain and Russ Bradley was run out for 11 to leave the St Annes innings in tatters at 78-5.

Five stunning catches then finished the game.

Bickerdike was caught in the deep by Warren for 12, Whalley was caught low down by Iain Cockbain for 15 and Tennant, after a brief flurry which brought him two massive sixes and a four in one over from Pike, was well held by Mal Cockbain off a skier to third man.

Davies was caught and bowled by Warren for one and to crown an excellent fielding display by Bootle.

Adam Cotton was caught by wicketkeeper Jones to leave St Annes 54 runs short of victory with six overs and one ball of their allocation unused.

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