Keswick and Egremont were involved in a thrilling tie as the Cumbria League’s Premier Division enjoyed a glorious day of sunshine.
That rare tie at Fitz Park left both teams still looking for their first win of the season.
Egremont had won the toss and elected to bat first, and although struggling early on at 30-3 were steadied by a 74-run partnership between professional Vathsal Govind and Mark Ponticelli (39).
Govind went on to make a vital 81 and found another able partner in skipper Coady Scott (33), putting on 84 for the sixth wicket.
Egremont eventually reached 209-9 with four of the Keswick bowlers taking two wickets each. Scott McGown (2-27) and James McGown (2-28) had the best returns.
Keswick started their response confidently with an opening stand of 67 before both Will Atkinson (28) and Stephen Hindmarch (38) were both dismissed without a run being added.
At 98-4 the game was evenly poised as home pro Risith Upamal then found an able partner in James McGown and they put on 104 for the fifth wicket and looked favourites to win.
There was drama, however, with two overs to go when the electronic scoreboard started playing up and Egremont wanted to know exactly what the score was.
Umpires Eric Carter and Gordon McCullough stopped play until everyone knew exactly what was required.
With one over left Keswick, who still had six wickets in hand, needed nine for victory and it didn’t start well.
Off the first ball McGown (47) was run out by Jon-Paul Dixon going for a suicidal second run but then Scott sent down a no-ball as the pressure increased on the Egremont captain.
Upamal took a single off the next ball but going for a second his partner James Benson was run-out by Govind.
The Keswick professional then took two off the next but on the fifth delivery he became the third batsman to be run out in the final over, going for a second run with Dixon again the fielder responsible. Upamal had top-scored for his side with 67.
New batsman Joe Grisdale took two from the sixth delivery to level the scores. It was all on the last ball of the game.
Egremont brought in all the fielders and a short-pitched ball from Scott resulted in Grisdale holing out to a simple catch in the covers by Govind. Keswick were 209-8 and both teams took seven points.
Scott (2-44) and Govind (2-51) were the most successful Egremont bowlers.
Although that proved to be the match of the day, what had expected to fill the top of the bill role between Furness and Cockermouth didn’t materialise.
In fact Cockermouth were good winners, and indeed, had threatened to hand Furness one of their most embarrassing defeats for some time.
At one point Furness were 47-8 and after Liam Curwen (23) had gone it needed a last wicket stand of 53 dominated by Harris Woods (39) with Josh Shaw (5no) to steer the home side to 119.
Sam Sharp had blown away the Furness top order and he finished his ten over spell with the season’s best bowling performance of 7-37.
Perhaps fittingly it was Sharp who saw Cockermouth over the line for a five wicket win with 16.3 overs to spare. He was 28 not out in the end after earlier contributions from Alex Grainger (23) and Matthew Sempill (21).
Furness stalwart Peter Lawson took 3-32 from his ten overs.
Workington continue to set the pace at the top of the table after collecting their fourth win in a row, beating Whitehaven by eight wickets at the Valentine Ground.
Whitehaven had started well enough with Jonathan Stewart (36no), skipper Stephen Holliday (29), Josh Foster (22) and pro Terence Warde (21) contributing but would be somewhat disappointed to finish on 159-6 after their 50 overs.
Ben Scott was the most successful Workington bowler with 2-34.
In reply the home side seemed to be in a spot of bother at 15-2 but an unbroken third wicket stand of 147 between Jake Daniel (99no) and overseas amateur Davis Mills (43no) carried them to a comfortable win with 10.5 overs to spare.
Champions Carlisle were involved in a tight game at Edenside against Cleator before they got home by three wickets.
The visitors, electing to bat first, reached 115-7 in their 50 overs while Carlisle got to 118-7 in the 44th over.
There was another tight game at Haverigg where the home side beat Wigton by three wickets with four balls to spare.
Wigton’s 168 all out in 47 overs owed much to opener Kieran Little (56) and wicket keeper Matthew Reed (40), while they also had the benefit of 28 wides sent down by the home attack.
Jordan Postlethwaite produced an excellent spell for Haverigg of nine overs which yielded 5-15.
Professional Pramod Maduwantha dropped anchor for Haverigg and a patient 73no eventually saw his side to 171-7 in the last over with good support from Jordan Postlethwaite (32) and Drew Postlethwaite (24).
Cameron McGuinness was the most successful Wigton bowler taking 3-36 while pro Chris Hodgson bowled a particularly mean spell of ten overs in which he took 2-10.
Top scorers on the day were Millom who made 253-7 at Lindal Moor before dismissing the home side for 136.
Substitute professional Bryce Street, who they had used last week, stole the show with 100 off 96 deliveries before he was run out. He followed up by taking 3-16 off 8.4 overs.
Anthony Foster (52) and Robert Thompson (27) gave solid support to the Australian pro.
Brad Stephens (65) top-scored for Lindal before he was run-out by Street.
