AUSSIE DUFFETT TON NOT ENOUGH TO WIN THE DAY
Last updated 11:37, Monday, 12 May 2008
AUSTRALIAN professional Paul Duffett scored an unbeaten century but was still unable to keep Cleator at the top of the North Lancs Cumbria Premier Division.
North Lancs CUMBRIA Cricket with John Walsh
In a thrilling and high-scoring encounter at Haverigg, Cleator had to settle for nine points from a drawn game – but Duffett almost got them home.
He had made 128 not out when the Cleator innings closed on 228-5 – just eight runs short of victory.
Earlier the Haverigg professional Sridharan Sriram (89), aided by Keith Paterson (81), had helped Haverigg post 235-6.
Clearly not a day for bowlers, Duffett took 4-56 while Sriram and Paterson were also best with the ball for Haverigg, talking two wickets apiece.
Cleator’s inability to squeeze eight extra runs at Haverigg meant that Millom’s six-wicket win at Whitehaven put them clear top.
Steve Holliday (46no) and professional Saliva Saman (36) were the leading batsmen for Whitehaven but they could only manage 153-9 as Millom professional Nathan Murray (4-44) and Ian Swarbrick (3-32) posed a few problems.
Millom were given solid start by openers Stuart Swallow (39) and Rob Brown (38) and although Steve Dawson took 3-40 it was too late to cause major problems and the visitors eased home on 154-4.
Reigning champions Workington completed back-to-back wins when they beat Carlisle by four wickets at Edenside.
So far the champions have not been able to field professional Simon Beare but the Kiwi jetted back to Britain at the week-end and will be ready to resume next Saturday.
Old adversary Pervez Shah was recruited at a sub professional by the west Cumbrians but he had one of his less distinguished afternoons – failing to take a wicket and scoring only six runs.
But Workington were still able to collect the victory after bowling out the home side for 138. County pace bowler Matthew Gorley took 5-24 and spinner Simon James had 3-23.
The Carlisle innings was boosted by a fourth wicket stand of 53 between professional Usman Saeed, who eventually finished on 54, and John Davies who made 31.
Workington had reached their target by the 34th over with opener Calum Moffat (58) the early mainstay before an unbroken seventh wicket stand of 31 between Gorley and Paul Chambers saw them through when there had just been the hint of a middle-order wobble. Saeed took 2-24.
Newly-promoted Penrith had an excellent seven-wicket win at Furness after they had bowled-out the home side for 122.
Mick Tuer took 3-32 and got good support from Kriss McLean (2-16) and John Iniff (2-30).
Openers Andrew Hall and Nicky Burns put on 52 for the first wicket so Penrith had a solid platform on which to build. Hall eventually finished with 48, including eight boundaries, before he was stumped and teenager Alex Alexander (25no) eventually steered Penrith home in the 35th over.
It’s been a poor start to the season so far for Keswick and they were in more trouble at home to Dalton as they slid to defeat by six wickets.
Keswick could only manage 134-8 and professional Dinuk Hettiarachchi scored 48 of those with John D’Leny adding an unbeaten 24 further down the order. Brian Bell took 4-24.
Hettiarachchi took 3-36 but Dalton won nicely on 135-4 with Chris Gleaves top-scoring on 37.
Cockermouth were among the runs at Duddon Sports but they couldn’t finish the job as the home side held out to earn six points from a backs-to-the-wall draw.
Gareth White (113) and Ian Buchanan (62) were the mainstays when Cockermouth rattled-up 240-5 in their 50 overs.
Duddon never threatened to get anywhere near that total and had only managed 102-8 at the close. Chris Hodgson took 3-23 for Cockermouth and White had 2-7.
In Division One Wigton won a thrilling game at the Ernest Valentine Ground, beating Workington Seconds by two wickets.
Paul McKeown scored 53 not out for Workington in their total of 175-6 and then took three wickets when Wigton just scraped home on 179-8
Appleby Eden just couldn’t force a win at Ulverston from a game which they dominated from start to finish.
New professional Tillakaratne Sampath was in a hurry to impress on a delayed debut as he had missed his flight for the previous week’s home game with Egremont.
He top-scored with 71 in an Appleby Eden total of 201-5 and had best support from Mark Ousby (43no), Andy Barr (33) and Phil Brabbins (22). Phil Cook took 4-31 and Ousby had 3-22 when Appleby just couldn’t squeeze out the last two wickets with the home side finishing on 110-8.
Cleator Seconds were overwhelmed in their home game against Lindal Moor.
Colin Knight took 5-9 as the west Cumbrians were skittled for 49. Earlier Knight had top-scored with 58 in Lindal’s total of 230-5.
David Ferguson took 4-26 for Lanercost when Keswick Seconds were bowled out for 118 and then the home side hammered 119-1 for a comfortable win.
Egremont (157) also had a good victory, beating Vickerstown (113) by 44 runs at Gillfoot Park .
Two delayed Higson Cup-ties were completed after being rained-off last week.
But in the case of Haverigg and Cockermouth they had to go to a bowl out after rain again intervened.
Replying to Haverigg’s 195-8, Cockermouth had reached 127-6 when play ended. Haverigg seemed to be in charge and in the bowl-out that followed they won 2-0.
Millom (174-5) beat Penrith (173-6) by five wickets
