THE first round of the Bay 96.9 Northern Premier League Slater Cup produced a close-fought contest at Stanley Park on Saturday.

Visitors St Annes lost the game by 15 runs after Blackpool had scored 178-6 in their 40 overs.

The St Annes reply was never on track and at the close their 163-5 was not enough to give the club passage to the next round.

Blackpool won the toss, batted and lost an early wicket when Martin Pickles was bowled by Roger Banks for a duck in the second over.

Stand-in opener Darren Walton and skipper Mark Lomas then added 50 runs in 12 overs before the latter was llbw to Dave Callaghan for 22.

Paul Danson joined Walton who continued to provide the majority of the runs and he had made 39 when he pulled Dave Taylor straight into the waiting hands of Gareth Evans on the deep square leg boundary.

That was 79-3 and it was soon 89-4 when David Bartholomew edged Adam Cotton through to wicketkeeper Duncan Whalley who atoned for his earlier misses of Walton and Lomas.

Gavin Armstrong played one sweetly-timed straight drive for four but had made only 11 when he fell lbw to Taylor with the total at 109.

The careful Danson and the carefree Chris Barrow then added 67 runs in 11 overs for the sixth wicket. Danson accumulated while Barrow set about the bowling and quickly began to catch up his partner.

Danson fell for 51, made from 82 balls with only one four, in the final over when he played an ugly shot at Joe Davies to lose his leg stump. There was just time for Richard Lamb to make a single and Barrow finished on 39 not out from only 28 balls with two fours and one six. Taylor was the most successful St Annes bowler with 2-38.

The St Annes reply began disastrously, and there were three wickets down for only 19 runs by the eighth over. Adrian Darlington was the first to go when he pulled a long hop from David Brooks to mid-wicket where Bartholomew made a difficult catch look easy. Evans, nought, fell to a catch behind by Martin Hackett off Marcus Sharp, and then Davies went the same way for four off the bowling of Brooks.

Dave Callaghan and Russ Bradley set about rebuilding the St Annes innings but some tidy Blackpool bowling and sound field placing made it difficult for them to maintain the necessary strike rate. With 20 overs remaining 102 runs were required and, although this was reduced to 77 from the final 10 overs, the required rate had increased.

Then, just as the momentum was starting to increase, Bradley was out when he fell lbw to Walton for 41 made from 89 balls with two fours. Adam Cotton came to the wicket intent on taking his side to victory and he survived an early chance when, on five, he struck Pickles to long-on where Lamb dropped a straightforward catch.

Forty-nine runs were needed from the last five overs and it had been reduced to 36 from three overs when the crucial wicket of Cotton, 19, fell. He struck a full toss from Pickles to extra cover where Brooks made ground and took the catch. With two of the final three overs to be bowled by the mercurial Marcus Sharp, St Annes had a difficult job on hand. And so it proved as, despite one pulled four from Callaghan off Pickles, Sharp was just too accurate for the batsmen to get him away.

St Annes, therefore, ended 15 runs short on 163-5 and must have been ruing the fact that the professional was still at the wicket with 77 not out, made from 97 balls with five fours, and that there were still five wickets in hand.

But it was Blackpool who, in a game that mercifully washed away the memory of the dull League draw of two weeks ago, progressed to the second round.

SCORES:

Blackpool 178-6 St Annes 163-5