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STAND suffered a 55 run home defeat at the hands of a formidable Denton and Lawrence side in their opening match of the Lancashire County League campaign.

Although Stand have stengthened their side with new professional Niranjan Kumara coming in alongside Zahid Javed, Stuart Catterall and Adrian Pearce, with Paul Wilkinson captaining the team, St Lawrence posted what proved to be a winning total of 150-9 after being put in to bat.

Kumara made the inital breakthrough as Williams (16) presented Penchion with a regulation catch, with the score on 19. Green was joined by Hawley and the pair patiently set about building what proved to be a match-winning partnership of 58.

At the half-way point in the first innings, the visitors had reached 64-1, before Stand's new spin twins Catterall and Javed were introduced. Jarved took his first Stand wicket with only his 15th ball as Hawley was trapped in front for 24.

Catterall made his mark as he dismissed Wake (0) with a full toss. Javed continued to pick up wickets from the Hamilton Road end as St Lawrence fell from 85-3 to 131-7 and, despite a quickfire 22 from Walton, Green was the only batsmen who was prepared to work hard to remain at the crease. He eventually fell to Javed for 63, thanks to a good catch from Chris Holt at long off. But the visitors still finished on 150-9, a total which was always going to be difficult on a strip on which batsmen had to work for their runs.

Stand's reply got off to a tentative start as the top order crumbled in familiar fashion. Javed's (12) brief stay in the middle was entertaining and, although it only lasted nine balls, it gave the Stand faithful an insight into what they can expect this season as he dispatched opening bowler Batty out of the ground, before trying it again the next ball only to be caught out.

At 37-6, Stand were deep in the mire as old stager Steve Hampson claimed two wickets for a single run in the space of five overs before injury forced him out of the attack. Kumara showed what he could do with the bat as he and Paul Duerden - Stand's most successful batsmen last term - built a 40-run partnership which restored some respectability to the score.

Sutcliffe hit a quick 15 before falling and then Kumara over-balanced and was stumped by the impressive Wake for a top score of 23. Duerden continued to pick up singles and finished his innings unbeaten on 21 as Stand were bowled out for 95.

11:33am Thursday 1st May 2008

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