CHORLEY 76-1 PRESTON 73 PRESTON suffered a nine wickets defeat at Windsor Park against Chorley who have moved up to fourth in the league, only 3 points behind league leaders Leyland Daf.

Daf's match at Kendal was abandoned without a ball being bowled but they regained top spot from Lancaster who were beaten by current league champions Netherfield at Lune Road by 6 wickets.

Returning to Windsor Park, Chorley captain Roland Horridge won the toss and put Preston in to bat.

Preston lost their first wicket with only one run on the board when Paul Mann was bowled by Chorley's new Australian professional Tim Menting for nought.

Two runs later, Preston lost two wickets Paul Paynter was caught by Rex Purnell off Menting without scoring.

Then Antony Mann was lbw to Mike Critchley for two runs.

Lee Kearsley and Glen Johnstone added 16 runs for the fourth wicket before the latter was caught by Horridge off Critchley for sixteen.

Kearsley and Atul Sachdeva departed at the same score of nineteen.

Preston captain Manoh Parekh and Ben Harrison took the score on to 35 before Harrison was caught by Purnell off Menting for 3.

Parekh and Paul Greenwood took the score onto 53 when Greenwood was caught behind by Neil Senior off leg-spinner Keith Eccleshare for a dogged dozen.

Manoh Parekh perished for 35 after leading by example and being the backbone of the Preston innings.

He was well caught by Horridge off Eccleshare.

The last pair only added one run before Iqbal Lilley was caught by Critchley off Menting's second spell for a duck.

This left Giles Harrison undefeated with one and Preston dismissed for a paltry 73.

Menting was the pick of the Chorley bowling attack by taking 6 for 20 off 15.5 overs, 8 of which were maidens.

Mike Critchley and Keith Eccleshare shared the rest of the wickets equally between them.

In reply, Chorley raced to victory in the 20th over for the loss of only one wicket, which was Russell Coke who was caught by Glen Johnstone off Manoh Parekh for 12.

Neil Senior and Roland Horridge were undefeated with 35 and 23 respectively.

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