Carlisle and Cockermouth are still locked in a battle for the Cumbria League Premier Division title with two games to go.
But it’s now officially a two-horse race as Keswick slipped to another surprise defeat to rule them out of contention.
That might come as good news for Carlisle as a trip to Keswick on the final day would have been tricky if the Fitz Park side had still been in title contention.
Carlisle beat Millom on the Duckworth Lewis method while Cockermouth overcame a tough hurdle at champions Furness to stay as they were.
At Edenside a number of overs were lost and after Carlisle had made 157 all out Millom’s target waa revised to 130 from 37 but they had only reached 97-7 at that stage.
Tom Benn (36), Ben Davidson (32) and Michael Slack (25) scored runs at the top of the order for Carlisle with Dec Tyson (4-27) and Primosh Perara (3-25) the leading Millom bowlers.
Professional Perara (42no) anchored the Millom reply before they fell short with Nico Watt (3-13) the main Carlisle bowler.
Cockermouth were put in to bat at Furness and certainly enjoyed the experience as they reached 269-9 in the 49 overs allocated.
Alex Grainger (81), Mikyle Louis (81) and Ryan Carruthers (29) were the leading run makers back by Sam Sharp (20) with sub pro Pramod Maduwantha tasking 3-55 from his ten overs.
A revised target of 260 from 47 overs became the Furness objective but they had only reached 178-9 at that point.
Ryan Griffiths (36), Maduwantha (22) and Liam Curwen (20) scored best for Furness while Matthew Siddall took 3-32 and Sharp had 3-33. That took Siddall past 50 wickets for the season.
Keswick’s home defeat ended their title hopes and virtually confirmed Whitehaven’s safety after another successful fight against relegation.
It was a good game, too, although being reduced in overs. Keswick were bowled out in 40 overs for 187 after being 54-6.
A seventh wicket stand of 81 between Oscar Link (54no) and Joe Grisdale (50) revived the home side after Will Atkinson (28) was the only other batsman to reach double figures. Josh Foster (3-37) and Andrew Cameron (3-40) shared the bowling honours for Whitehaven.
Whitehaven’s revised target was 164 in 38 overs and they reached it for the loss of six wickets in the 35th over.
Professional Timycen Maruma (68no) saw them over the finishing line with good support from Nathan Carmichael (38). Spinner Dan Gaskell had 3-128 for Keswick.
Whitehaven are now 18 points clear of bottom club Dalton with just two games left after their south Cumbrian rivals were beaten at home by Haverigg without gaining a point.
Haverigg made 254-6 in their 50 overs and Dalton, who had elected to field, were bowled-out for 117 in reply.
Jordan Postlethwaite (104no) and Drew Postlethwaite (60) did the bulk of the scoring for Haverigg while Robbie Evans took 4-44 when Dalton struggled in reply.
Workington were put in to bat at home to Egremont and reached 204 in their 50 overs helped by a fifth wicket partnership of 84 between skipper Matthew Lowden (51) and Adam Chambers (43). Earlier Kristian Moffat had made 39.
Ellis Gribbin was the most successful Egremont bowler with 4-38 from his ten overs.
Egremont’s reply was largely built around Shaun Bostock (43) and Owen Thompson (41) the only batsmen in double figures as they were bowled-out for 136 in the 49th over. Five of the seven bowlers used by Workington took wickets led by Ben Scott (2-5), Regan Jackson (2-9) and Chambers (2-16).
Cleator were seven wicket winners at Wigton after bowling out the home side for 133 in 45.5 overs.
At one point Wigton were 22-7 before the tail wagged strongly and there was a stirring partnership of 60 for the last wicket between Glen Liddle and Johnny Honeyman.
Cleator lost two early wickets but then father and son Ian Clark and Darren Clark steered their side to a comfortable victory. Darren, still one of the best batsmen in the League, was unbeaten on 73.
