The big four in the Cumbria League’s Premier Division were all convincing winners but the other two games were real cliff-hangers.
Two of the sides battling for Premier Division survival – Egremont and Haverigg – finished almost neck and neck as 19 wickets tumbled.
While at the Valentine Ground Workington edged a fluctuating affair against Millom it what was another low-scoring home epic for the west Cumbrians.
At Gillford Park Egremont were put in to bat by Haverigg and had lost half their side for 38 before a stand between Mark Ponticelli (33) and Coady Scott (6) more than doubled the score.
The tail scrambled enough runs to take them to three figures and they were eventually bowled-out for 113. Jordan Postlethwaite (3-22) and Sachin Jayawardina (3-29) were the leading Haverigg bowlers.
Professional Jayawardina proved to be the key batsman in Haverigg’s reply as he finished with a match-winning 47 not out, keeping calm while the wickets tumbled.
Egremont fancied their chances after reducing Haverigg to 102-9 after they had been 92-5 and seemingly on course.
But it was Jayawardina who got them home, with a notable effort from last man Craig Armstrong who only made one not out but faced 16 deliveries when Egremont were pressing for victory.
Not for the first time Coady Scott was Egremont’s most successful bowler with 4-25 from his 10 overs. The consolation for Egremont was that they took five points from the defeat.
Workington had seemed to be going well enough against Millom after being put in to bat and had reached 60-3 with steady contributions from Adam Chambers (27) and skipper Kristian Moffat (21).
But the rest of the side could only add another 60 and they were bowled-out for 120 with Ben High taking 3-14. Wicket-keeper Joe Simons took five catches and was just unable to hang onto a sixth.
Professional Lahiru Dilshan was last man out, caught in front of the pavilion over bower Graham Dawson’s head, for a carefully compiled 66.
Although Ben Scott accounted for Robert Thompson early on, Primosh Perera and Anthony Foster appeared to be steering Millom towards a victory target.
But Dilshan had his fellow pro Perera caught off a mistimed hook for 38 and at 64-2 it was suddenly a different game.
Dilshan then took three wickets in an over and from 75-3 Millom slid alarmingly to 79-8 with Workington scenting victory. Opener Foster was sixth out for a painstaking 22.
With plenty of overs left, however, Braith Connor and Robbie Wilson batted very sensibly and gradually revived Millom’s hopes. They had reached 104 when Lewis Hull had Connor trapped leg before for a gritty 11.
Still it wasn’t certain which way it would go as Wilson and keeper Simons edged Millom nearer their target. Skipper Moffat brought himself back into the attack and he clean bowled Wilson (17) to register a narrow Workington win by seven runs.
League leaders Cockermouth maintained their own position and at the same time added to Whitehaven’s problems with an eight wicket win at Sandair.
The one downside for Cockermouth was that popular overseas amateur Mikyle Louis badly tore a hamstring while fielding which could keep him out for much of the second half of the season.
Whitehaven chose to bat first and professional Timycen Maruma (48) gave the early innings lift-off and later Jack McNicholas (26) and Josh Foster (23) boosted them to 146 before they were bowled-out.
Young Josh Brown, ahead of his appearance for the Cumbria Development side on Monday, was the most successful home bowler with 3-22.
The League leaders didn’t hang about and had knocked off the runs for the loss of just two wickets inside 22 overs. Alex Grainger (88) and Matthew Sempill (35no) were the main contributors.
Carlisle, a point behind their rivals, took even less time to wrap-up the ten points at Wigton.
It took only 27.4 overs to bowl-out the home side for 52 and then, in losing just one wicket, they knocked off the runs in 8.4 overs.
Nico Watt took 4-14 for Carlisle with Matthew Reed (20) and pro Chris Hodgson (11) the only Wigton batsman in double figures. Marc Brown was 24 not out in Carlisle’s winning response of 56-1.
Glen Weightman was the star of the show for Keswick in their win at Cleator when he hit 108 not out from only 75 deliveries, hitting 16 fours and two sixes.
Keswick had been teetering at 79-6 when Weightman dominated a stand of 90 with Oscar Link (14) and largely through his efforts reached 216-7 in their 50 overs. Professional Risith Upamal was next best with 26.
Darren Clark was the most successful Cleator bowler taking 4-39 from his ten overs.
Cleator, who had invited Keswick to bat first, never really got into the contest and were eventually dismissed for 126 in 30.2 overs. Best with the bat were James Rogers (27) and Graeme Lilly (24) while Weightman capped a good personal day by taking 4-51 from his ten overs. Upamal had 3-29.
Furness won comprehensively against Dalton to leave the top four unchanged after they had batted first and were bowled-out for 258 off the last ball of the final over.
Garry Thompson (48), Nathan Waterston (41), Saad Khan (39), Liam Curwen (29), Sam Dutton (22), Elliott Maxfield (22) and Lewis Gribbin (20) meant that seven of the top eight made decent contributions.
Lewis Woodend took 4-29 for Dalton who were dismissed for 61 in 24.4 overs. Jordan Woodend (25) was the only batsman in double figures. Veteran skipper Peter Lawson took 5-15 for Furness.
