St Annes increased their lead at the top of Division One to 23 points after a 12 point victory over Preston in round 13 of the Furness Building Society Northern Premier League 2011 season. Second placed Leyland could only manage 4 points from a rain affected draw in the local derby against Chorley at Fox Lane. Morecambe continued their recent good form to move up to third after a tense victory over Blackpool.

At Vernon Road, Preston made a respectable 186 all out in 49.3 overs after being inserted. Opening batsman Sajid Patel made a patient 54 from 99 balls with two fours and one six, before Preston professional Saeed Bariwala made his second fifty of the season with a powerful innings of 60 from 62 balls (6 x fours, 3 x sixes). Preston's progress was restricted by yet another masterful spell of slow left arm bowling from St Annes professional Dinuk Hettiarachchi who took his sixth haul of five or more wickets this season to finish with figures of 7 for 49 from 24.3 uninterrupted overs. Hettiarachchi brought the Preston innings to a close in sensational style, claiming a hat-trick to dismiss Bariwala and then Preston wicktekeeper Charlie Williams and newcomer Afsar Nagolia for golden ducks. Duncan Whalley also excelled for St Annes with six dismissals behind the stumps to extend his lead in the wicketkeeping category of the TWP Financial Planning Amateur Awards.

Preston captain Lukman Vahaluwala made the league leaders fight hard for their victory with a testing spell of 4 for 48 from 15.2 overs, but solid batting from former Pakistan international Atiq Uz-Zaman (55 from 77 balls, 7 x fours, 2 x sixes) and youngster Nathan Armstrong (53 from 81 balls, 8 x fours, 1 x six) led St Annes to a 4 wicket win with 4.4 overs remaining.

At The Stanning Memorial Ground, Chorley had the better of the rain affected local derby against Leyland. Steady rain prevented any play until 4:15pm when a 25 overs per side contest got under way. Chorley were asked to bat first by Leyland professional Brett Pelser who captained the side after a late team change saw Luis Reece come into the home side for David Makinson. Chorley posted 129 all out off the last ball of their 25 overs, thanks in the main to a wonderful innings of 64 from 52 balls with 4 fours and 5 sixes from Will Moulton. James Rounding continued his recent good form with the ball to take 4 for 20 for Leyland. The Leyland innings failed to ignite in the face of some disciplined Chorley bowling. Professional Gaurav Dhar excelled with 3 for 12 from 6 overs and helped restrict the defending champions to 100/8 from their 25 overs.

Morecambe climbed the table thanks to a 15 points victory over Blackpool. In bowler friendly conditions Morecambe struggled to 143 for 8 from their 50 overs. Skipper Mark Woodhead anchored the innings with a steady 43 before he became one of Blackpool professional Con De Lange's five wickets. De Lange bowled his left arm spin with superb control to pick up his first five wicket haul in the Northern Premier League, taking 5 for 51 from 22 overs. Despite always being ahead of the run rate, Blackpool were dismissed for 122 inside 39 overs to give Morecambe a 21 run victory. Anwar Ali proved to be the match winner for the home side with 5 for 39 and he was ably supported by the rejuvenated Jono Gates with 4 for 53. De Lange made 37 before he was run out and Richard Gleeson made a Division One career best of 42 not out as only three Blackpool batsmen reached double figures.

New Zealand international player Jamie How followed up his hundred in the Readers Cup on Sunday with a magnificent innings of 158 not out that broke the Kendal first team individual batting record in his side's 132 run victory over Fleetwood at Broadwater. How beat the previous best of current Morecambe and Cumberland batsman Ikram Ullah who made 151 against Carnforth in 2006. His innings came off 151 balls and included some breath-taking strokes. 30 year old How, a veteran of 19 Tests and 41 ODI's, hit 7 fours and a remarkable 13 sixes. Fleetwood professional Ryan Smith conceded 69 from 12 overs, picking up 3 wickets in the process. Such was How's domination of the Kendal innings that the next highest score was 18 from all-rounder Jack White. A shell shocked Fleetwood side were dismissed for 105 in 39.3 overs, with Kendal captain Chris Miller taking 4 for 38 and Stuart Parkin 3 for 44. Adam Sharrocks top scored for the home team with 30.

Barrow professional Pieter Malan passed one thousand runs in all matches for his club this season as he led his side to an 8 wicket victory over Lancaster at the Ernest Pass Memorial Ground. Malan, who now has 757 runs in Division 1 at an average of 94.60, made 81 not out as Barrow chased down their target of 165 in 33.4 overs. At the halfway point in the season the South African has the Barrow club record of 930 runs (held by popular Sri Lankan professional Pasan Wanasinghe) well within his sights and may even be targeting the overall league record of 1,381 set by Netherfield's Callum Ferguson in 2008. Malan shared partnerships of 52 for the first wicket with Guy Heffernan and 96 for the second wicket with Robin Adams, as Lancaster captain Michael Stevens tried eight bowlers in an attempt to make significant breakthroughs. Earlier Lancaster had posted 164 for 8 from their 50 overs with the evergreen Tim Barry making 52, his second league fifty of the season and captain Michael Stevens 41. For Barrow spinners Liam Livingstone and Gary Collins each took three wickets.

The match at Birch Hall between Darwen and Carnforth was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

St Annes (140 points from 13 games) now lead defending champions Leyland (117 points, 13 games) by 23 points. Morecambe are in third on 115 points, with Chorley close behind on 113 points, both teams having a game in hand on the top two. Netherfield who were not in action today are in fifth with 100 points from 13 games.

Preston opener Sajid Patel hit 54

Full an overview of the scorecards from the Northern Premier League, please click here. 

Written by Mike Latham