Lancaster 159-9 St Annes 229-5 Dec

ST ANNES had to be content with a winning draw from their trip to Lune Road.

After Lancaster put St Annes in to bat openers, Adrian Darlington and Gareth Evans dominated the bowling attack and had a 97 run partnership for the first wicket before Darlington was stumped for 40.

St Annes professional, Dave Callaghan joined Evans, and they took the score on to 172 before the former was adjudged lbw to Graham Barnes for 44.

The third St Annes wicket fell at 180 when Gareth Evans was dismissed in identical fashion to Darlington for 69.

Thirteen runs later, Steven Twist was bowled by Breese for eight. St Annes captain, Russ Bradley declared when he was bowled by Breese for 23. This left Sean Bickerdike undefeated with 19.

Lancaster's leg-spinning professional Gareth Breese took 4-85 from 21.3 overs. In reply, Lancaster were always behind the asking rate. Parkinson and Breese took the score to 85 for 2 before they both departed at the same score. Parkinson was bowled by John Cotton for 40. Breese was caught by Steven Twist off Adrian Darlington for 31.

The St Annes bowling attack took control of the game as Lancaster lost their next five wickets for only 25 runs. Joe Davies the left arm pace bowler took four of the wickets and the other scalp went to 15-year-old leg-spinner Zac Taylor.

Then Lancaster captain, David Heywood and Neil Jordan stopped the rot with a 47 runs partnership for the ninth wicket before Jordan was bowled by Steven Twist for an aggressive 36.

David Heywood, and his opening pace bowler Graham Barnes stopped St Annes taking the final wicket for victory. Heywood finished undefeated with 21, and Barnes never got off the mark.

St Annes finish their season with a local derby match at Vernon Road against Blackpool.

This should be quite a close fought encounter because some believe that Blackpool possess the best opening pace attack in the league in the form of their professional, Marcus Sharp, and captain Rudra Singh.

Nevertheless, to balance this argument St Annes have the best all-round professional in the form of Dave Callaghan.