BLACKPOOL'S Vaux Northern League Division One game with Lancaster at Lune Road on Monday (May 3) went down to the very last ball of the match.

Chasing Blackpool's 210-8, Lancaster were 205-7 and needing six from the final ball.

But Blackpool professional Marcus Sharp beat the flailing bat of Marshall to hit the stumps and the game was drawn as Lancaster ended at 205-8 in what was an enthralling contest throughout.

Blackpool's innings centred around Gavin Armstrong, 62 from 80 balls with eight fours and one six with Martin Pickles (43) and Chris Cornall (40) along with Armstrong and Pickles adding 105 in just 83 minutes after Robin Bracewell had departed to a catch behind the wicket for four.

Namajee made a spritely 26 and Newell 15 as Blackpool recorded three batting bonus points for the first time since the rule was introduced prior to the 1998 season.

Lancaster in reply struggled against some excellent team bowling by Sharp who gave nothing at all away and with 20 overs remaining Lancaster, at 73-4, looked like they had let slip their opportunity for victory.

But Pakistani professional Raj Hans had other ideas and, after a slow start, he went on to the attack and accelerated to 80, from 122 balls with 10 fours and one six, before Blackpool skipper Rudra Singh had him caught by a diving Bartholomew when attempting to hook a bouncer.

Parkinson made 32 and Marshall 21 as Lancaster made hay in the sunshine with a magnificent 132 from the final 20 overs but the last six runs were just too many for them.

Much to Blackpool's relief Lancaster appeared to have thrown away a game in which, for a large part, they were very much in control.

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