MORECAMBE will be hopeful of recording their fourth win of the season on Saturday as they travel to bottom of the league Preston.

If they play to their full potential they should be favourites for an important victory.

Lancaster face a tough contest at Vernon Road as the lock horns with St Annes.

St Annes pro Dave Callaghan is arguably the best all round professional in the league and their young all rounder Steven Twist made his debut for Leicestershire seconds against Yorkshire seconds at Harrogate last week.

Rain forced Lancaster's Lune Road clash with Blackpool to be abandoned at a delicately balanced position.

Blackpool needed 42 runs for victory with five wickets and eight overs remaining.

Put into bat, Lancaster lost their first wicket at 12 when Ian Parkinson, promoted up the batting order, was bowled by Darren Walton for five.

David Heywood and professional Gareth Breese then plundered the Blackpool bowling attack to all parts of the ground.

They added 118 runs for the second wicket before Breese was caught by Marcus Sharp off Walton for an aggressive 54.

Heywood and Phil Dennison took the score onto 167 before the latter was bowled by Walton for 18.

Seven runs later, Heywood was bowled by Rudra Singh, Lancashire's cricket development officer, for a solid 80 runs.

Lancaster lost their fifth wickets at 179 when Luke Phillips was then out for three.

David Derham and Lee Marshall were undefeated with 14 and 12 when Lancaster's innings closed.

In reply, Blackpool were reeling at 14-2 before Mark Lomas and Richard Lamb restored the balance with a third wicket partnership of 89 before Lamb was caught by David Heywood off Phil Dennison for 35.

Blackpool lost their fourth wicket at 134 when Rudra Singh was dismissed in identical fashion for 13.

Half the Blackpool side were dismissed for 153 when Robin Bracewell was run out for four.

Six runs later the match was abandoned with Lomas 84 not out, and Paul Dawson not out on two.

Meanwhile, Morecambe completed a comfortable six wicket victory over Fleetwood at Broadwater.

Phil Thornton won the toss and put Fleetwood in.

The home side struggled against the lively pace attack of Peter Stephens and Farouk Patel.

The main resistance came from Mark Wilkinson, who topped the scoring with 37.

He was ably supported by Robert Clark who contributed 27.

Farouk Patel was the pick of the Morecambe bowling attack and took 3-33 from 13 overs, while Peter Stephens ran him close with 4-60 from 24.1 overs.

Tommy Clough also turned in a useful spell of 2-14 from 6 overs.

In reply, Morecambe were struggling at 40-4 when their captain, Phil Thornton and Tommy Clough took charge of the proceedings.

They featured in an unbroken fifth wicket partnership of 120 to win the match.

At the close, Thornton was unbeaten on 69, and Clough with 41. Fleetwood captain John Wright tried seven different bowlers in various combinations, but to no avail.