KENDAL are to officially complain about the state of the wicket at Darwen, where they lost by five wickets to the Northern Premier League leaders on Saturday.

The ball bounced unpredictably off a ridge on the uncovered strip, which the visitors considered to be in a poor condition.

Winning the toss, Kendal opted to bat as they felt the wicket would deteriorate further and were bundled out for 104 with Terry Hunte hitting a top-scoring 35.

Darwen’s Andrew Mercer took 4-37, Jeff Hacking (3-31) and Gareth Cordingley (3-7).

Chorley adapted better to the conditions for their innings and grated hard to make steady progress and pass the target as 105-5 with Kabir Khan taking 3-45 and Kevin Howarth 2-32.

On Sunday, Kendal fell six runs short of victory over Walkden in the Thwaites Lancashire Cup.

It was the second weekend running that a closely-fought run chase had ended in disappointment for the Shap Road club.

Walkden batted first and Kendal were pleased to have the visitors at 77-4 by the drinks interval with their Australian pro Klinger and their best bat Smith both out.

Kendal did not bowl as well afterwards and the Bolton-based side closed on 225-7 with Bennison (85), Parkinson (45) and Ingram (39) in the runs.

Kendal’s reply saw promising stands between Terry Hunte (40) and David Fallows (53) and then Chris Florence (18) and Kabir Khan (43).

Loose strokes again saw too many wickets given away and although Gareth Ashburner and Craig Caswell took them close, the last wicket fell with four balls left and them six short of victory.