Millom earned their first win of the season in the Cumbria League’s Premier Division when they beat Cleator in a tense, low-scoring game at the JD Campbell Memorial Ground.
The South Cumbrians won by just 12 runs after being put into bat by their hosts and making a rather unconvincing 120 in 41.3 overs.
But it proved enough as Cleator also struggled with the bat and were eventually bowled out for 108 at the start of the 45th over.
Millom’s top four all went cheaply and it was really a middle-order effort from Graham Dawson (27), Callum High (26) and Dec Tyson (21) that eventually got them to 120.
Doug Hughes (3-21), David Blackwell (3-25) and new pro Rishabh Tiwari (3-28) shared the bowling honours for Cleator.
The hosts, however, fell short as opener Ben Wishart (46) lacked any sort of support. The only other batsman to reach double figures was wicket-keeper Tom Whitfield-Bott (10) who came in at number eight.
Ben High (5-16) and Callum High (3-21) were the heroes for Millom as they did the bulk of the damage.
As well as Millom celebrating their first win, so too were Egremont who produced a remarkable effort at Haverigg to win by 60 runs.
New overseas recruit Raghav Kupar again top-scored for Egremont with 21 in an all-out total of 92 – augmented by 32 extras, 29 of them wides from the Haverigg bowlers.
Jordan Postlethwaite was the most successful of them taking 4-20 from his 10 overs.
Haverigg’s response never got going and they were bowled-out in 18.4 overs for 32 with Kieran Rogan (6no) and Sam Adams (6) the joint top-scorers.
Kupar finished with the remarkable figures of 4-1-9-5 while Coady Scott (3-8) and Ellis Gribbin (2-14) shared the other wickets.
At the top of the table Cockermouth continue to show the way, defying all the pre-season gloom with a fifth successive victory.
Dalton had started life back in the top-flight with an unbeaten run which came to an end at home to their Sandair visitors.
Cockermouth’s professional Shrikant Mundhe has gone back to India for a month to play in a T20 tournament, and his replacement at Dalton did not let the visitors down.
Chirag Khurana took 4-1 from six overs and young Josh Brown, 11th man for Cumbria today, weighed in with 3-21 as Dalton were dismissed for 78 in 26.2 overs.
Kagiso Rapulana (17) and Liam Curwen (14) were the only Dalton batsmen in double figures.
Cockermouth eased to victory in 18.4 overs with Alex Grainger (33no) and Khurana (29).
There was some doubt as to whether the Carlisle v Furness game at Edenside would go ahead after heavy rain the day before but it did – and the home side continued their winning run after the opening day defeat by Keswick.
Carlisle were able, at the last minute, to hire a sub pro for the injured Michael Slack with South African Blayde Capell stepping into the breach.
Put in to bat Carlisle were dismissed in 37.4 overs for 16-0 with Capell top-scoring on 37. He had most support from Cumbria all-rounder Nico Watt (27) and opener Oliver Spedding (22).
Faizan Ghumann (4-38) was the most successful Furness bowler.
At 7-3 Furness were in deep trouble before a fourth wicket stand of 73 between professional Matthew Kleinveldt (43) and Mark Daly (32) seemed to have put them back on course. But they lost their last six wickets for 33 runs and were all out for 113 in 36.4 overs.
Watt took 3-7 and Capell had 3-22 as Carlisle wrapped-up their fourth win in a row.
Keswick continued their good run, only thwarted of a full house so far by a second week wash-out, when they beat Workington by seven wickets at Fitz Park.
Put in to bat Workington were bowled-out for 76 in 29.3 overs, a disappointing total in which Davied Perce (17) top-scored.
Scott McGown (4-23) and Dan Gaskell (4-17) were the main bowlers for Keswick.
Although they lost skipper Will Atkinson cheaply Keswick were guided home to 78-3 in 27 overs by Stephen Hindmarch (20no) and pro Risith Upamal (20). Jack White took 2-18.
Whitehaven bounced back from their defeat at Cockermouth with a h0ome win by 55 runs against Wigton after they had been put in to bat.
Chase Young (41) and pro Terance Warde (29) were the main contributors to the Whitehaven total of 172 in 47.1 overs. Lewis Little took 4-24 for Wigton.
Wigton were bowled out for 117 in reply, falling at the end of the 37th over. Chris Hodgson top-scored with 20 while Lewis Keeler took 4-24 for Whitehaven.
