Kendal 78-0

Blackpool 76

Kendal won by 10 wickets

Chorley Building Society Northern Premier League

ADAM Cowperthwaite’s new club record helped Kendal thrash Blackpool in a much-needed first league win of the season.

Cowperthwaite’s 9-42 ensured Kendal sauntered to victory, while openers Ryan Nelson and Darren Moore were in no mood to mess about as they knocked off Blackpool’s pitiful total by just the 12th over.

Cowperthwaite was on strike for 20 overs and regularly added to his victims, while Gary Baker at wicketkeeper was given a field day by taking five catches, with Chris Miller taking two at first slip, on a disastrous day for out-of-sorts Blackpool.

Only two batters reached double figures lower down the order, with opener John Mounsey the first to fall to Cowperthwaite in the fourth over to leave Blackpool 8-1.

In the eighth over Baker took his first catch when Smith clipped Cowperthwaite’s ball to him for three, while Jack White claimed the only non-Cowperthwaite wicket an over later when he smashed into Paul Danson’s off stump for three.

And when Andy Furniss fell in over 10, Blackpool were 22-4.

Pro Richard Gleeson had a torrid day, conceding 34 runs off his four overs with the ball and scoring just three before he was another to clip to Baker in the 16th over as Blackpool fell to 27-5.

Another victim nearly fell two overs later at third slip when a difficult reaction catch was only just dropped, but with Kendal picking up maiden after maiden it seemed highly irrelevant.

Fifteen of the 39.1 overs bowled were maidens as the visitors tried to live with Kendal’s attack, but Cowperthwaite regularly hit the seam to cause carnage to Blackpool’s order.

In the 24th over, Ash Moreau went for three when Baker and Cowperthwaite struck once again, and there was a touch of comedy about Blackpool’s seventh wicket as first and second slip bounced the ball between them before Miller clung on to make sure Gurmandeep Bains was out for six off 50 balls in the 28th over, making Blackpool 43-7.

Ryan Adderley and Danny Gilbert at numbers eight and nine were the top-scorers with 13 runs apiece, and the pair’s partnership of 24 was the highest for Blackpool, with just nine boundaries scored throughout the entire first innings for the visitors.

But Adderley and Gilbert fell to Cowperthwaite’s charms, and when Ben Eckton clipped the former Carnforth man’s ball for Baker’s fifth catch of the day in the 40th over, Blackpool were all out for 76.

Kendal scored 10 runs off Gleeson’s first over, and Darren Moore caught the eye with 10 fours on his way to a colossal 45 from only 28 balls.

Ryan Nelson was classy with his 28 as Kendal’s openers knocked Blackpool’s bowlers for boundaries in all areas of the ground, and Moore’s four to long off in the 12th over marked a very comfortable triumph to put their last-minute defeat to Netherfield in the Twenty20 Cup firmly behind them.

Blackpool’s wicketkeeper was injured in the ninth over when he was struck by a stray bail on the hand as it turned out to be one of those days for the visitors.