BUOYANT Morecambe soared into the top five of the Surridge Northern League after a thrilling seven run win over second placed Netherfield on Saturday.

In the last month Morecambe have started to show their true colours and batted well at Woodhill Lane after skipper Phil Dennison won the toss and chose to bat.

Mally Mateka and Mark Woodhead got the innings off to a good start with opening bowlers Scott Clement and Ryan Wilson suffering in the sun.

Woodhead made a good 42 before being caught by Tommy Prime of Mark Hadwin, while Mateka went past 50 on a hard track that certainly suited him.

Gareth Pedder failed to trouble the scorers and Dennison only made 10 - but the in-form Tommy Clough continued his good batting run, making 47 before becoming Hadwin's fourth victim.

At the other end Mark Orchard was building an innings, timing the ball superbly on his way to an unbeaten 62 as Morecambe racked up 231-5 off their 52 overs.

That is a good score at Woodhill Lane - but with Netherfield's strong batting line-up there was always a chance they could pass the locals.

Attack

And after the success of removing Craig Walmsley and pro Pierre De Bruyn, who loves 'sledging' apart from when it is fired back at him, Morecambe sensed an opportunity.

But Gareth White and veteran Grahame Clarke set about the Morecambe attack and appeared to be leading their side towards victory.

But youngster James Whincup caught White off the bowling of Orchard and then Clough removed Clarke to set the locals back on their victory course.

Orchard, bowling well on the hard surface, sent Prime and Ben Haddrick back to the pavilion cheaply and Clough bowled Clement to leave Netherfield on the brink of defeat.

But rather than hanging on, Netherfield continued to chase down Morecambe's score and the penultimate over saw number 10 Hadwin make a real effort to steal the game.

He took Orchard on and the first ball disappeared over the pro's head for four, the second was edged to the boundary and then he blasted Orchard into the Osborne Grove houses for six.

He then pulled the pro the boundary to take Netherfield to a position where they needed eight runs off the final over.

Clough stepped up for the final over and trapped Wilson for a duck to send Morecambe into full celebration mode.