Carlisle are back on top of the Cumbria League’s Premier Division after Cockermouth beat leaders Furness at Sandair.
With Workington also winning four teams are still in contention for the title with seven more weeks remaining.
The top four now reads – Carlisle 117; Furness 114; Workington 110; Cockermouth 101.
Carlisle’s big win at Cleator by 151 runs only added to the increasing problems for the home side as they are now only a point better off than bottom side Haverigg.
A fourth wicket stand of 117 between the Davidson brothers – Jonathan (95) and Ben (33) helped propel Carlisle to their 50 overs total of 243-7.
Open Graeme Ion (32) and tail-ender Fraser Conn (29no) were the other main contributors. James Rogers took 3-29 for Cleator.
Rogers was really the only obstacle for Carlisle when Cleator batted. Coming in at five with his side 17-3 he stood firm and was 53 not out when the home side was bowled-out for 92 in the 31st over.
Carlisle pro Michael Slack took 5-19 from his full 10 overs.
Cockermouth had won at Furness earlier in the season and they knew they had to complete the double to stand any chance of staying in the title race.
They won by 17 runs in the end (after a revised target was set) but it had looked as though it was going to be more comfortable than that.
A quickfire 57 by Ryan Griffiths off 35 balls, which included four fours and four sixes, threatened to set-up an unlikely Furness win.
They had been 125-7 chasing the home side’s 228-3 before ending-up 204-8, with a revised target of 222 because of rain interruptions.
Sub pro Promod Maduwantha (43), Nathan Waterston (22) and Garry Thompson (22no) were the other main contributors.
Five Cockermouth bowlers took wickets with Sam Sharp (2-32) the best.
Gareth White had been the mainstay for Cockermouth, the opener making 114 from 144 deliveries and helping himself to 11 fours and three sixes.
He figured in a second wicket stand of 77 with Ryan Carruthers (42) and an unbroken fourth wicket stand of 119 with pro Sameera Sadamal (35no).
Workington stayed third with a win in the west Cumbrian derby at Whitehaven.
After electing to bat Workington had early problems at 28-3 but reached 223-8 in their 50 overs with skipper Matt Lowden (61) again figuring positively with the bat. He had good support from Kiwi Davis Mills (38), David Pearce (31) and Thomas Fox (23).
Chase Young took 2-16 for Whitehaven and Lewis Keeler had 2-33.
Whitehaven had struggled to 111-7 in reply with Terence Warde (34) doing best and seemed well out of the game but were given some late hope by Nathan Carmichael (47) and Keeler (29no) who put on 56 for the eighth wicket.
Eventually the home side was dismissed for 179 with Lowden completing a good personal performance by taking 3-41 from his ten overs.
The key game as far as the fight to avoid relegation is concerned was the contest at Lowmoor Road where Wigton continued their fine recovery with a hard-fought two wicket win over Haverigg.
Wigton invited their visitors to bat first and they bowled them out for 170 in 48.2 overs.
That total was almost entirely due to the efforts of the Postlethwaite brothers with Jordan (79) and Drew (50) doing the bulk of the scoring.
George Spark (4-47) and John Reed (3-39) took the headlines for Wigton but Glen Liddle bowled his ten overs, seven of them maidens and took 1-8 in a particularly mean spell.
Wigton kept losing wickets at regular intervals and needed important knocks from skipper pro Chris Hodgson (31) and Lewis Little (31) to keep them on course.
They eventually got to 171-8 and victory in the 43rd over. Young Zac Mawdsley took 3-29 for Haverigg.
Lindal Moor are still in the relegation dog fight after they lost by ten wickets at Millom.
They had elected to bat but must have thought it a wrong decision when they slumped to 19-5.
Brad Stephens (38) stayed around to try and rectify the situation but tail-ender Lachlan Wilson (12) was the only other batsmen to reach double figures.
They finished 99 all out in 45.3 overs with Callum High (4-11) the most successful Millom bowler.
The Millom openers Madhav Kaushik (49no) and Robert Thompson (35no) didn’t hang about and saw them home without being parted at the start of the 21st over.
The bottom three now looks like –Lindal Moor 61, Cleator 58, Haverigg 57.
This time last year Egremont were in that group battling against relegation but their fourth win of the season helped lift them into the top half of the table this time round.
Beating Keswick by 56 runs enabled them to leapfrog the Lakes side into sixth.
Egremont had won the toss and made 162 before they were bowled out in 48 overs.
In reply Keswick were bowled-out for 108 in 41.1 overs.
Egremont lost both openers for eight before pro Vathsal Govind (45) and Owen Thompson (23) put on 53 for the third wicket which proved to be the biggest stand of the game.
Alex Hodgson chipped in with 20 as Egremont were finally bowled out after 42 overs for 162 with Glen Weightman (4-36) and pro Risith Upamal (3-28) doing best with the ball for Keswick.
Skipper Will Atkinson (38) hung around for Keswick but there was no substantial support from a strong top order and they were bowled-out for 108 in 41.1 overs. Govind took 3-26 from his ten overs and couple of wickets each for Ellis Gribbin and Coady Scott.
