NETHERFIELD suffered a torrid weekend after they were given a cricket lesson by Fleetwood in the league and were dumped out of the Twenty20 Cup by Lancaster.

League leaders Fleetwood gave Netherfield’s title hopes a major if not mortal blow with a comprehensive 10-wicket victory at Parkside Road.

Netherfield batted first and they got off to a terrible start as Marc Brown was dismissed second ball.

In the fifth over John Mason was run out for three and four balls later pro Cobus Pienaar (four) was bowled by fellow South African Shaun Liebisch to leave Netherfield 7-3.

Three quick wickets were taken in the 11th and 12th overs as John Huck (five), Ben Barrow (nought) and Chris Williams (seven) fell by the wayside with ‘Field on 24-6.

Fleetwood pro Liebisch bowled a superb 5-16 and Sam Bell chipped in with a few wickets as they ripped a huge hole in Netherfield’s batting order to leave them floundering on 48-9 in the 26th over.

But a 44-run last wicket partnership between Robbie Lambert and Stuart Nixon helped make Netherfield’s score a little more respectable as they were bowled out for 92.

Lambert scored 35 off 76 balls with Nixon adding 18.

The match had been reduced to 39 overs per innings because of rain, but with Netherfield out in the 35th over, Fleetwood were given until over 43 to knock off a target of 93 to win.

But they didn’t even need half of that time as Mike Clinning and Adam Parker both scored 46 not out.

Parker was in sumptuous form, smashing one Williams ball onto the clubhouse roof, while Clinning played some lovely shots off the hips to secure seven fours as Fleetwood reached 94 in the 19th over for a 12-point victory.

Sunday proved to be no better as Parkside Road outfit lost by seven wickets in the semi-final of the Twenty20 Cup to Lancaster.

Pienaar started proceedings in the best way possible with a four first ball, but two balls later he clipped a Liam Moffatt behind for Samuel Moorby to catch and Netherfield were 4-1.

Brown and Huck proved to be the best partnership as they scored 34 between them off five overs before the latter was caught for 18 as Netherfield were on 49-3 in the ninth over.

Huck tried to keep the runs ticking but with five overs left he was caught by Alex Metcalfe off Ben Simm for 27, and Netherfield went on to score 83-8 after their 20 overs.

In response former Kendal man Jamie Heywood and Luke Phillips got off to a good start as they put on a 32-run partnership before Phillips was run out in the seventh over.

In came pro Timycen Maruma and his 16 runs off the 10th over, with Lee Sparks (10) hitting a huge six in the previous over, all but ended Netherfield’s Twenty20 campaign.

Maruma went on to score an unbeaten 24 as Lancaster scored 84-3 to win by seven wickets.

But in the final, Fleetwood capped off an excellent weekend by defeating Lancaster by 25 runs, Parker top-scoring with 46.