ST ANNES enjoyed a comfortable 50 runs victory over Fleetwood at Broadwater.

Put in to bat, Adrian Darlington and Eldine Baptiste put on 36 runs for the first wicket before the latter was bowled by Fleetwood's opening pace bowler Tony Poxon for 20.

Darlington and Bobby Denning added 45 runs before Denning was run out for 17.

The third and last St Annes wicket fell at 89 when Darlington was caught and bowled by Fleetwood's South African professional Shawn Nicolson for a solid 42.

Chris Harrison and Russ Bradley then hammered the Fleetwood bowling attack.

They featured in an unbroken fourth wicket partnership of 137.

Chris Harrison's unbeaten 80 included 4 sixes and 7 fours off 58 balls, while Russ Bradley's undefeated 59 included 4 boundaries off 64 balls.

In reply, Fleetwood were in early trouble when St Annes professional Eldine Baptiste removed both openers Nic Coultas and Shawn Nicolson having them caught behind by John Isles for 12 and 2 respectively.

Apart from Mike Clinning who made 74 off 113 balls, including 11 fours and Mark Wilkinson with 42 off 41 balls, including one six and three fours.

Only Tony Poxon with 21 got into double figures as St Annes won with 6 overs remaining.

Eldine Baptiste bowled excellently to take 5 for 55 off 15 overs and he was ably supported by teenager Gareth Evans with 4 for 49 off 12 overs.

St Annes face a hard battle this Saturday (June 13) when they travel to Sandy Lane to take on current league leaders Leyland Daf.

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