IT was very much a case of Bank Holiday blues at Stanley Park on Monday (May 31) as Blackpool were swept aside by Morecambe in their Vaux Northern League Division One game.

Blackpool's 77 all out was their lowest total since making 72 against St Annes in 1994 and their third lowest Northern League score ever at Stanley Park; only 38 against Preston in 1979 and 42 against Fleetwood in 1966 being lower.

Morecambe, despite some hostile bowling from Sharp and Singh, made light of making 78-4 in only 19.5 overs and achieved victory by six wickets.

Blackpool won the toss and, on a very green track which provided plenty of help to the bowlers, perhaps surprisingly chose to bat.

The decision very quickly backfired.

No runs were on the board when the first ball of the second over Cornall was comprehensively bowled by Farook Patel.

Armstrong gathered a quick 10 but then tamely succumbed as he too was bowled by Patel with the total on 15.

Bracewell, who had battled hard for 14 overs, then hit Patel to Prince at cover to be dismissed for seven and it was a familiar story for Blackpool, three wickets gone and only 20 runs on the board.

The total had only advanced to 32 when Danson, short on confidence at the moment, was leg before wicket to Stephens for two and one run later skipper Rudra Singh got a leading edge to Patel to be caught at cover by Eccles for one.

Bartholomew was the next to go, disappointingly leg before wicket to Patel after hitting the bowler for two fours earlier in the over.

The returning Paul Simmonite played one trademark cover drive to the boundary before he was caught in two minds and could only succeed in lobbing a gentle catch to Izzat at extra cover to provide Patel with his sixth wicket in a well-deserved return of 6-43.

And at 53-7 Blackpool were down and almost out.

Namajee, on four, survived a scare when Maje at gully seemed to pick up a catch but with the umpire unsighted it was finally determined to have been caught on the half-volley.

Marcus Sharp made six before he was caught by Clough at mid-off when not going through with his drive and when Eccles bowled Saturday's hero Higham for nought Blackpool were 63-9.

Namajee and debutant Richard Cragg added 14 runs for the last wicket but then the former was caught at cover for a top score of 18 Blackpool's 77 all out was a poor effort and left the bowlers with very little chance of salvaging anything from the game.

Marcus Sharp and Rudra Singh, the latter bowling faster than he has so far done for Blackpool, tried to salvage some pride and both had their rewards.

Sharp ripped through Izzat's defence when the opener had scored only one and then Singh removed Morecambe's South African professional Ashwell Prince for 19 when he had him caught by Sharp at slip.

A total of 54-2 when Woodhead, 30, edged Singh through to wicketkeeper Cragg and it deteriorated to 64-4 when Singh rearranged Clough's stumps when the batsman had made three.

Morecambe captain Phil Thornton soon put a stop to any thoughts of any further heroics when he edged a fast rising ball from Singh over the wicketkeeper's head for four and followed this with a more authentic straight driven six and a pull to the boundary to take his side to their target with less than 20 overs bowled.

Blackpool thus suffered their third League defeat and their alarming slump in form has seen them fall seven places in the league over the past three weeks.

A home game against lowly Leyland next Saturday will hopefully put them back on a winning track and, equally importantly, in good heart to face Chorley in the National Knockout regional semi-final, also at Stanley Park, on Sunday (June 6).

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.