ST ANNES lost their third Vaux Northern League match of the season when Chorley beat them by five wickets at Vernon Road.

Batting first, St Annes got off to a sound start before Eldine Baptiste was run out for 23.

Bobby Denning was caught behind by Neil Senior off Mike Critchley without troubling the scorers.

Then Russ Bradley and Adrian Darlington stopped the rot before the latter was caught by Russell Cake off Chorley professional Jo Angel for a solid 45.

Wickets then fell at regular intervals as Chorley introduced veteran leg-spinner Keith Eccleshare into the bowling attack. Only Neil Bradley and wicket-keeper Duncan Whalley got into double figures as St Annes reached 155 for 9 off their allotted 50 overs.

Chorley scored the winning runs off 48.5 overs, with opening batsman Russell Cake laying the foundation with a confident 80 before he was caught by St Annes captain Brian Tennant off Paul O'Sullivan.

Neil Heaton and Chorley captain Roland Horridge saw their team gain their first victory of the season.

The former remained undefeated with 24 and the latter 2 as Chorley reached 157 for 5.

Brian Tennant used seven different bowlers including himself but to no avail.

Next Saturday sees a break in the league fixtures, with the first round of the Vaux Sampson Cup.

St Annes entertain bottom of the table Preston, so should have no problem reaching the second round.

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