St Annes hold a ten-point lead over defending Champions Leyland in the race for the Furness Building Society Northern Premier Cricket League (incorporating Readers Cricket Balls).

The 2009 Champions St Annes have 203 points with five to play; Leyland have 193pts with six to play.

Netherfield (played 20-175pts) are in third with Chorley (19-164) and Morecambe (19-158) next in line.

This Saturday St Annes travel to Lancaster and then have a free date. St Annes' remaining fixtures are: Blackpool (away), Carnforth (home), Kendal (home) and Preston (away).

Leyland host Kendal at Fox Lane in a rehearsal for the Readers Cup Final to be held on Sunday 21 August. Leyland defeated Netherfield in last Sunday's semi-final while Kendal beat St Annes.

Leyland's remaining fixtures are: Carnforth (away), Netherfield (home), Barrow (away), Blackpool (home) and Chorley (away).

Barrow pro Pieter Malan tops the runs charts with 1,013 at 84.42, a new club record. St Annes' Atiq Uz-Zaman again leads the way for the TWP Financial Planning Amateur Awards with 899 at 56.19.

Leyland pro Brett Pelser has hit 812 runs at 73.82 and Luis Reece 781 runs at 60.08.

Atiq has Ian Austin's club record of 1,075 runs set in 2006 in his sights. Pelser is chasing Gordon Greenidge's club record of 976 runs made in 1993; Reece has David Wareing's amateur record of 953 runs made in 1973 as a target.

Preston skipper Lukman Vahaluwala has broken Geoff Hill's amateur bowling record and has taken 66 wickets. Now he has the target of Doug Green's 754 runs made in 1986. Vahaluwala has scored 650 runs so far.
St Annes pro Dinuka Hettiarachchi has 78 wickets but is again missing this weekend; Todmorden pro Qaiser Abbas, 29, deputises. The left handed batsman has scored 592 runs in the Lancashire League this season and taken 73 wickets with his slow left arm.

Adam Parker (Fleetwood), Ryan Nelson (Carnforth), Michael Stevens (Lancaster) and Alex Davies (Darwen) are all amateur batsmen to top 600 runs so far.

Anwar Ali the Morecambe pro and Chorley's pro Gaurav Dhar have also taken more than 50 wickets. Anwar Ali has taken 60 and Dhar 54. Ben Simm, the Lancaster off-spinner has taken 46 wickets and has his eye on his own club record of 61 wickets set last season. Steven Mercer (Blackpool) has 43 wickets, Kendal captain Chris Miller 42 and Netherfield's Stuart Nixon 40.

In Division Two leaders Leyland defend their title with a 20-point lead over Chorley and Blackpool in third. The standings with six games to go are: Leyland (18-217), Chorley (18-197) and Blackpool (18-184).
Blackpool batsman Adrian Darlington has set a new club D2 batting record and has made 746 runs at 46.63. Morecambe's Ryan Pearson has also topped 500 runs. Blackpool skipper Kevin Reid is top wicket-taker with 41, followed by Chorley's Chris Harty with 37.

Leyland will also play in the Readers Division Two cup Final; they play Fleetwood at Broadwater on Sunday 4 September.

On Sunday Jamie Heywood T20 Cup holders Kendal enter the regional stage of the Barbados Cockspur Cup ECB t20 competition. They play Middleton and New Brighton in a three-way group staged by Middleton CC. The first game sees Middleton playing New Brighton (10-30am) with Kendal then playing New Brighton and the host club.

Fixtures Saturday 13 August 2011

Division One (1pm) Round 21
Blackpool v Carnforth
Chorley v Barrow
Fleetwood v Preston
Lancaster v St Annes
Leyland v Kendal
Morecambe v Lancashire Colts
Netherfield v Darwen

Division Two (1pm) Round 21
Barrow v Chorley
Carnforth v Blackpool
Darwen v Netherfield
Kendal v Leyland
Preston v Fleetwood
St Annes v Lancaster
Morecambe free date

Sunday 14 August 2011
Barbados Cockspur Cup ECB t20 Regional:
At Middleton CC (10-30am start)
Middleton v New Brighton
New Brighton v Kendal
Middleton v Kendal

Mike Latham
http://npcl.play-cricket.com/content/view.asp?id=10349842&cid=200