LANCASTER's poor run of form continued against Chorley on Saturday, falling down to a six-wicket loss.

Having lost the toss captain David Heywood was asked to bat first.
And Lancaster got off to a gritty but solid start, with Ryan Nelson and Michael Stevens.

The pair reached the 50 mark after 20 overs and were going strong until Nelson (22) was first to fall, Chorley professional Friedel de Wet taking the catch at mid-on.

Then, in similar fashion to previous weeks, Lancaster lost the next four wickets for only one run.

De Wet ran out Tim Barry superbly, Jamie Heywood edged behind off a James Lee delivery and Stevens (21) was also caught at mid-on.

A brief recovery from Michael Walling (13) and Lancaster's professional Wassem Khan (21) helped to take the score to 90.

Nigel Eastham (2-20) bowled both Khan and youngster Billy Akrigg (eight) leaving the tail exposed.

Heywood senior (eight not out) and Daniel Milligan (10) played out the latter overs but Chorley left-armer Keiron McCullagh (3-25) made it difficult to score and bowled the last three batsmen, leaving Heywood stranded.

Chorley's innings started well, with the mixed attack of Nigel Eastham and the gritty Josh Tolley.

Khan (1-29) took the wicket of Eastham (17), Akrigg taking a smart catch.

But Chorley didn't collapse, Will Moulton (28) stroking the ball about and supporting Tolley.

It was the introduction of Scott Sparks' off spin that caused problems and he immediately bowled Moulton, the score on 95.

A brief rain delay lifted Lancaster's hopes of a draw out of the game, but the teams came back onto the field after only a few minutes.

And a couple of late wickets from Barry and Milligan only really delayed the inevitable, as Chorley reached the target with 15 overs to spare.

* LANCASTER 2nd XI came away with a winning draw. Having posted 212 thanks to Jack Turton's 75 and Iain Parkinson's 40, Chorley were only 107-5 in reply when rain stopped further play.