The latest round of matches in the Cumbria League’s Premier Division produced five comfortable victories – and a one-wicket thriller!
For while the majority of games were meandering to a predictable finish the clash between Millom and Wigton in the south of the county went down to the wire.
In the end Millom sneaked home to win by one wicket, keeping the pressure on Wigton who remain next to bottom of the table.
Wigton had won the toss and elected to bat first but in 32.3 overs were dismissed for 90, while their hosts scrambled home at 91-9 from 36.5 overs.
After winning the toss at St. George’s Road Wigton made a productive start before home seamers Paul O’Callghan and Robbie Wilson made inroads into the top order.
The introduction of Declan Tyson was a sign of things to come as he extracted turn and bounce off the pitch and finished with five wickets. Luke Ivison also bowled well to get the key wicket of professional Chris Hodgson.
John Reed was the top scoring Wigton batsman with 20.
After getting away to a flying start Millom pro Madshav Kaushik holed-out to mid-off from the bowling of Hodgson to begin the drama.
With the pitch offering even more turn and bounce the Wigton spinners Hodgson and Reed set about making life difficult for the Millom batsmen.
Tom Wilkinson and Anthony Foster steadied the ship for a while until Wilkinson was out which started another mini collapse.
With 30 to win at drinks Ivison and Braith Conner took Millom to within 20 when Connor as bowled before another rearguard action from O’Callaghan helped move the score further until he was trapped leg before.
With Ivison standing firm Wildson joined him for a partnership that took the score to within six of the required total when he was well caught at slip off Glen Liddle.
As tension mounted with the last pair at the wicket Ivison hit the ball over cover for a boundary to send the crowd into an uproar after an extremely tense finish. Hodgson finished with four wickets for Wigton.
At the top of the table Furness continue to hold a narrow advantage, now over Carlisle, after Workington slipped to a six-wicket defeat at Keswick. It was a welcome win for the home side who have made a slow start to the campaign.
Workington, beaten at home by Carlisle in a close-run contest last week, were outplayed on this occasion after being asked to bat first.
They had been given a great start by Thomas Fox (29) and Jake Daniel (16) who put on 50 in the first nine overs from the McGown brothers.
But at 52, through a double bowling change, Keswick made the breakthrough. Glen Weightman dismissed Fox and home pro Risith Upamal got Daniel.
Workington then slipped to 107-8 and looked like being dismissed very cheaply but a bright and breezy partnership of 31 between Ben Scott (18) and the returning Regan Jackson (14) got them to 140 all out.
Weightman, who has missed most of the season so far with an injury sustained on the rugby field, finished his 10 overs with 4-26.
Scott (2-36) and skipper Matt Lowden (0-18) bowled their full allocation up top and managed to keep a lid on the Keswick scoring but could not make enough inroads.
Upamal (40) and Stephen Hindmarch (35) batted sensibly and the match was ended by some big shots off Weightman who finished 34no off 31 deliveries.
Leaders Furnesas won by 67 runs at Egremont after being put into bat by their hosts.
Plenty of runs at the top of the order followed an opening stand of 128 between Lewis Gribbin (63) and Yash Dubey (57). Acting skipper Nathan Waterston (36), Garry Thompson (28no) and Sam Dutton (21) all chipped in towards a 50-overs total of 246-6.
Shaun Bostock (2-41) was the most successful Egremont bowler.
A formidable target became even greater when Egremont lost in-form opener Matt Hunter caught behind off the second ball and they eventually finished on 179-9. Professional Vathsal Govind (30), Jack Thompson (30), Vickram Balakrishnan (24) and Sam Thompson (23no) were the main contributors.
Samson Storey (3-20) from his ten overs added to his growing reputation in the top flight.
Carlisle moved above Workington into second place when they won by 87 runs at bottom side Haverigg.
The city side got off to a great start with openers Marc Brown (75) and Nico Watt (45) involved in a big opening stand. Although pro Michael Slack and James Dawson went quickly there were runs further down the order from Jonathan Davidson (51) and Graeme Ion (24) so that they reached a healthy 250-6. A total of 25 extras also aided their cause.
Home pro Umar Waheed (67) hung around for Haverigg, and there was support from Gavyn Chesher (30) and deputy wicket-keeper Liam Ford (22no) but in the end they had reached 163-7.
Watt was the leading Carlisle bowler with 3-15 from his ten overs while Fraser Conn had 2-20 from eight.
Cockermouth have not given-up hope on catching the leaders, and are the only side to have beaten Furness.
They travelled to Lindal Moor and returned with the points in the bag from a win by six wickets.
After winning the toss they invited the home side to bat first and might have had second thoughts when openers Callum McDougall (57) and Paul Wilcock (35) put on 67 for the first wicket. Then when Matthew Siddall ran out Abe Brown (20) Lindal were 111-2.
A middle order collapse saw them slip to 141-6 before a quickfire 35 off 38 deliveries by Cameron Troughton got Lindal moving again. They were bowled-out for 214 in their full 50 overs with Siddall (3-17) off his ten overs doing best for Cockermouth.
The visitors lost openers Alex Grainger and young Reegan Scott for only 32 before skipper Matthew Sempill (91) off 57, with 17 fours and two sixes, belted Cockermouth into control.
Professional Sameera Sadamal (48no) and Sam Sharp (29) helped them to 215-4 in 34 overs, helped as well by 25 extras. Freddie Scrogham took 2-22.
Alarm bells will surely be ringing at Cleator as another defeat plunged them to third bottom, only eight points better off than Haverigg.
This latest set-back was in the Copeland derby at home to Whitehaven and the win pushed the visitors into the top half of the table.
Put in to bat Whitehaven were bowled-out for 180 in 49.1 overs, but would have been in trouble without two crucial contributions.
Professional Terance Warde made 89 and Matthew Harrison added 41 and apart from 17 extras nobody else reached double figures.
Darren Clark took 3-11 while David Blackwell had 3-33 for Cleator.
Not for the first time Clark was the mainstay of the Cleator batting and when he was trapped leg before by Warde for 31 there was little resistance. His dismissal left Cleator 49-5 and they were eventually bowled-out in 31.4 overs for 74.
Warde took 3-7 from his 10 overs; Billy Thompson took 3-11 off 5.4 overs and Jonathan Stewart had 3-29 from his full complement.
