First win of the season on the board

Lancaster 183ao
Preston 106ao
Northern Premier League Division One

Lancaster got their first win of the 2014 season under their belts with a convincing victory against Preston on Saturday. Charlie Swarbrick’s 43 paved the way for the hosts before skipper Ben Simm did the damage with the ball.

The hosts got off to shaky start when Jamie Heywood was caught behind off the wily medium pacers of Andrew Starkie for just 2. Charlie Swarbrick joined the promoted Michael Barry to steady the ship as the Lune Road surface offered up fewer demons than in past weeks. Barry look poised for his second half century of the season before Saeed Bariwala intervened trapping him leg-before for 33.

Swarbrick kept the scoreboard moving with Danny Welbourne as Lancaster approached three figures for the loss of just two batsmen. Swarbrick was back to his powerful best forcing Preston skipper Bariwala to introduce 6 bowlers into the attack. The sixth did the trick for the visitors however, as Soyeb Kapadia removed the danger man Swarbrick for an impressive 43.

Lancaster city star Billy Akrigg didn’t have the best of comebacks at number 5, departing for just one run. But it proved a good day for the both the Swarbrick brothers as the younger Billy Swarbrick, shared his sibling’s composure at the crease with an important 20.

With Danny Welbourne and Iain Burstow departing, it was left to the younger Swarbrick and the lower order to push Lancaster on to their full quota of batting points. The returning Iain Perrieman and number 11 Liam Moffat made game contributions to boost the hosts to a formidable total, before the latter was dismissed in the penultimate over.

Despite Preston boasting a batting line-up that has put a number of league attacks to the sword, the four pronged attack of Moffat, Perrieman, Simm and Burstow proved to be no match for the visitors.
Only Jibran Khan offered a stern resistance for the Preston men, as he carried his bat for a hard-fought 57. Perrieman initiated Preston’s slide trapping skipper Bariwala and Navaz Patel, before Moffat got in the act as Kapadia could only find the hands of Swarbrick.

Stand-in skipper Heywood timed his bowling changes well as the hosts continued to pick up wickets at regular intervals. The introduction of Simm was particularly damaging as he scythed through the visiting middle order. Iain Burstow, meanwhile, extoled the virtues of bowling straight by picking up a brace of lbws and breaking any chances of a Preston victory.

Khan and Momredrafik Patel were to be Lancaster’s only obstacles to 15 points, but they were merely delaying the inevitable. Simm broke the stand trapping Patel for yet another lbw, and, following an athletic Liam Moffat run out, both Lancaster off-spinners combined to dismiss Preston 77 runs short. Simm finishing with an impressive 4-25.