Preston pulled themselves clear of the bottom of the Northern Premier League with an emphatic nine wicket win over Leyland and a winning draw against Leyland Motors at the weekend.

They restricted Leyland to 132 at Fox Lane with Simon Dunk top scoring for the home side with 38 and Charlie Williams the only other batsman to make an impression with 34 not out.

Manoj Parekh was the star bowler for Preston taking five wickets for 41.

Mario Ventura and Ian McDonnell then both made 63 not out as Preston coasted to 136-1.

The following day Preston scored 200-8 against Leyland Motors at West Cliff with Mario Ventura top scoring with 70, Ian McDonnell making 46 and Rhys Williams 21 not out.

Motors replied with 164-9 to which Alan Richardson contributed a top score of 38 and James Aspinwall made 24 and Andrew Makinson 22 while Andrew Miller took four wickets for 38 and Lukman Vahaluwala three wickets for 28.

The previous day Leyland Motors had scored an impressive 237-6 at St Annes with Atif Ashraf making 100 and James Aspinwall 58 but still lost by three wickets with Russ Bradley making 53 not out including the winning six with three balls remaining.

Other run-makers for St Annes were Adrian Darlington, 38, Steve Twist 37, Joe Davies 31, Gareth Evans 30 and Shane Harwood, who made 29.