Workington are back on top of the Cumbria League’s Premier Division after champions lost the match of the day at home to Furness.
For as the champions lost heavily at Edenside, Workington were moving to a comfortable win at Lindal Moor to take over the table leadership.
Carlisle proudly held the only unbeaten record in the Premier Division but were well beaten by Furness as the battle for the 2023 title really hots up.
After winning the toss Carlisle opted to bat and although Marc Brown went early Graeme Ion (38) and Michael Slack (29) got them moving so at 81-2 they appeared to have a decent platform.
But the champions just didn’t go on enough from there and after 50 overs had only doubled their total to 164-9.
Samson Storey (4-36) and pro Yash Dubey (3-34) were the main wicket takers for Furness.
Although Furness lost opener Lewis Gribbin at 14, Dubey (90) not out found reliable partners in Nathan Waterston (29) and Sam Dutton (36no). A 70 runs unbroken third wicket partnership between Dubey and Dutton saw them to victory after just 33 overs with eight wickets in hand.
Subsequently Workington moved top of the table again after a six-wicket win at Lindal Moor after the home side had been dismissed for 175 in 41.4 overs.
Ryan Gilmour was the main contributor to that total for Lindal with 52 and had decent support at the top of the order from Paul Wilcock (24) and Edward Waind (22).
Four of the six Workington bowlers used took two wickets apiece – Tom Fox (2-19), David Pearce (2-22), skipper Matt Lowden (2-34) and Kristian Moffat (2-47).
Workington were put firmly in control by their top three of Fox (49), Davis Mills (45no) and Jake Daniel (31) with Moffat (20no) there at the end and they claimed the points at 179-5 in 42.4 overs.
The top three now reads – Workington (72), Furness (67) and Carlisle (65) with Cockermouth (55) having work to do in fourth.
The Sandair side had a big win at Haverigg as the home side could manage only 152-9 when they responded to Cockermouth’s 268-6.
Gareth White, batting down the order at six and plagued by a bour of tennis elbow, still managed to hit a season’s best 110 not out which included 18 fours and a six, and he only faced 77 deliveries.
Earlier there had been an encouraging 44 from teenage opener Reegan Scott who had been promoted following a maiden century for the second team. Professional Sameera Sadamal made 33 and Tom Norman hit 39 at a run-a-ball after sharing in a sixth wicket stand of 133 with White.
Under the circumstances there was a good stint from home pro Umar Waheed who took 3-25 from his ten overs.
Haverigg were never seriously going to challenge the Cockermouth total after slumping to 53-4 and the highlight for the hosts was a partnership of 63 between Jordan Postlethwaite (51) and young Zac Mawdsley (22).
They had reached 152-9 at the close with 18-year-old Connor Steadman grabbing a hat-trick with the last three balls of the game. His one over brought him figures of 3-4.
“I’ve never seen anybody as chuffed as Connor after taking his hat-trick,” said centurion White.
Egremont, regarded in some quarters as potential relegation candidates, are in dreamland – up to fifth in the table after another win, this time against Wigton.
The Gillfoot club have clearly got themselves a very good professional in Vathsal Govind and he had an important part to play in this latest win by five wickets.
In his ten overs he took 3-26 after Wigton had elected to bat and then a patient 50 not out got his side over the line with 4.4 overs to spare.
But pleasingly for Egremont it wasn’t a one-man show by the pro for Shaun Bostock took 5-28 from his ten overs and opener Ollie Wilford made 60.
Wigton had been in trouble at 85-6 and then 121-8 but the fact they got to 180 from 45.2 overs was largely down to Lewis Little (45) after openers Kieran Little (25) and George Johnston (24) had put on 67 for the first wicket.
Matthew Hunter (24) and Mark Ponticelli (20) enjoyed some time in the middle for Egremont who replied with 181-5.
The Clark dynasty continues to have an effect on the Cleator club with Darren showing how good a batsman he is in a seven wicket win at home to Millom.
He made 88 not out to steer his side home to a revised target of 176-3 in 44.4 overs after Millom had earlier made 211-7 in their 50. Ben Wishart made 25.
Chirag Khurana (58), Tony Foster (39) and Dec Tyson (24) were the main contributors for Millom while Darren Clark’s father Ian made his contribution, taking 2-14 from his ten overs.
Whitehaven professional Terance Warde scored exactly 100 at Keswick but it wasn’t enough as the home side won by six wickets.
Wicket keeper Leo Sanczuk (25) provided Warde with the only real substantial support as they were 195-9 at the end of their 50 overs. James McGown had Keswick’s best bowling return of 3-41.
Although skipper Will Atkinson went cheaply Keswick were put in the driving seat by Stephen Hindmarch (48), Ben Sharp (45) and pro Risith Upamal (42) before Scott McGown (34no)m finished the job with six wickets and seven overs to spare.
