A WINNING draw for Kendal meant they finished fourth in the Northern Premier League despite drawing level on points with Leyland.

Just one more point would have allowed the Shap Road side to finish third, but because Leyland won more matches over the course of the season than Kendal, the Lancashire side claimed third place.

Kendal batted first and got off to a decent start as Nick Phillips scored 15 when he was caught and bowled by St Annes pro Atiq uz-Zaman in the 13th over, making the Westmorlanders 33-1.

In came sub-pro Richard Waite and he put on a scintillating partnership of 72 with Jack White to put Kendal in a very strong position.

White hit four fours and a six on his way to 43 when he was bowled by Matthew Grindley, who went on to claim 3-36.

At this point in the 30th over Kendal were 101-2, and Waite continued to turn the screw on his way to 98, which included 12 fours and two sixes.

The rest of the batting line-up were happy to let Waite have the strike, who got his score off 104 balls.

But he was two runs short of a well-deserved century when he was caught by Nathan Bolus off Grindley to put Kendal on 190-6 in the 45th over.

Kendal scored another 28 runs off the remaining five overs to post a good total of 218-8.

White got Kendal off to the perfect start in the reply by bowling the ever-dangerous uz-Zaman for one as St Annes went down to 2-1 in the opening over.

Nanthesh Kiruparan scored a 21-ball duck when he was caught by wicketkeeper Shane Hyland off Stu Parkin in the eighth over and the Vernon Road side were struggling on 15-2.

Bolus put on a partnership of 33 to steady the ship with Matthew Taaffe, who was caught by Parkin off captain Chris Miller for 17.

The quick wickets of Callum Jones (two) and Kushan Mirando (six) put St Annes on 72-5 in the 30th over but from then on it was downhill for Kendal as they could not get the wickets required to complete victory.

St Annes were well behind schedule at this stage but Bolus went on to score an unbeaten 93 and Andy Kellett hit 40 as the pair put on a superb partnership of 86 to take the match beyond Kendal.

Kellett was caught by Phillips off White as St Annes were 158-6, but with only three overs left it was not enough time to get the remaining four wickets and Kendal had to settle for finishing their season with a winning draw.