Cumbria League Premier Division champions and current leaders Carlisle were particularly pleased to record an important win yesterday.
They had travelled to Furness without five regulars and also unable to book a sub pro to stand-in for the injured Michael Slack.
That they came away with maximum points from a win by 34 runs was down, in no small way, to a century from Alex Raybould, who is not a regular member of the side these days.
Put in to bat Carlisle were in a bit of trouble at 112-5 but Raybould produced a masterful innings to rescue his side and see them through to a more than respectable total of 249-7.
His unbroken eighth wicket stand with Chris Blythe was worth 65 towards the end of the innings.
Raybould, who has one previous century to his name, was 104 not out from 126 deliveries hitting fifty in boundaries – 11 fours and a six. Tom Benn (30) and Blythe (24no) were the other main contributors.
Faizan Ghumann (3-37) was the most successful Furness bowler as their attack didn’t help their side’s cause with 20 wides.
The Furness reply ended short on 213-7 and a lot centred on professional Matthew Kleinveldt, the League’s leading batsman. He passed 1,000 runs for the season during his innings but when he had made 82 off 75 deliveries he was bowled by Zephania Arinaitwe and from 168-4 Furness didn’t have the ammunition to see them through to the win.
Ghumann (36), Thomas Smith (30), Lewis Gribbin (28) and Garry Thompson (23) did their bit but it wasn’t enough. Arinaitwe and Nico Watt both took 3-37.
Title rivals Cockermouth could only sit and wait in the pavilion for the Carlisle result after they had steamrollered Dalton at the Raymond Denham Sandair Oval.
After racing to 343-3 in their 50 overs, Cockermouth bowled out Dalton for 72 to win by 272 runs.
The tone was set by opener Alex Grainger with a remarkable knock of 165 not out from 137 balls and which included 14 fours and seven sixes.
His second wicket-stand with skipper Matty Sempill (78) was worth 164 and the third wicket partnership with professional Shrikant Mundhe (44) realised another 104 runs.
Apart from Mark Hollier (28), the Dalton batting was swept away in 25.4 overs with Sempill taking 5-32 in ten overs.
Grainger even contributed with the ball taking 2-1 in his one over.
Big game at the bottom saw Egremont beat Haverigg by 48 runs at Gillfoot. They are now level on 59 points, nine points behind Cleator.
Electing to bat first Egremont were bowled out for 223 in 48.2 overs.
Raghav Kapur (51) led the way, supported by openers Matthew Hunter (44) and Coady Scott (35). They also had the help of 37 extras, 29 of them wides.
Sam Adams had a good spell of 9.2 overs which brought him 7-51.
Haverigg gave it a decent go, largely through Dale Graham (67) and Jordan Postlethwaite (47) but were bowled-out in 43 overs for 175.
Hunter took 4-38 and Ellis Gribbin had 3-24 for Egremont who will feel more confident of avoiding the drop.
Cleator will now have to start looking over their shoulders after they suffered a heavy defeat at Millom.
They would have been reasonably happy after restricting the home side to 153-8 in their 50 overs but then responded poorly, bowled-out for just 34 in 21.5 overs.
Michael Holmes (48no) and Josh Mackie (34) were the only Millom batsmen to keep the scorers busy. Darren Clark (3-41) and Rishabh Tiwari (2-24), both from their ten overs, had the best returns for Cleator.
Those two might have been expected to make big inroads towards the Millom total for Cleator but Tiwari went for nine – and that’s was the side’s highest score.
Clark fell for six and the Cleator reply just melted away.
Declan Tyson emerged as the main threat, taking 6-19 from his ten overs.
Keswick and Whitehaven continue their personal battle to finish third in the table. They have occupied third and fourth between them for practically all the season.
At the moment Keswick have six points on their west Cumbrian rivals as both won their latest games.
In a good game at the Valentine Ground, Keswick beat their hosts Workington by 15 runs after electing to bat.
Arran Davies (45) and Stephen Hindmarch (39) gave them a solid platform and although slipping to 107-4 the innings was given late propulsion by Glen Weightman (56) and Ben Sharp (34) so that they reached a respectable 223 all out off the final delivery.
For Workington David Pearce had 4-48 and skipper Matthew Lowden took 3-36.
Workington have been short of runs this season but they made a good attempt to reach their target before being bowled-out in the last over for 208.
Adam Chambers (58), Jack White (30) and Sam Bates (22) led the chase with James McGown taking 4-30 for Keswick.
Whitehaven had a bit more to spare in their win at Wigton after inviting their hosts to score 204 for the win.
Electing to bat first Whitehaven reached 203-8 with most of their runs at the top of the order from Nathan Carmichael (80), Jonathan Stewart (31) and Terrance Warde (31) before Josh Foster posted 22 not out further down the order.
John Reed was the most successful Wigton bowler with 3-39 from his ten overs.
After losing both opener for 11, the Wigton reply never really took off. Tom Fleming top-scored with 23 and they were eventually bowled-out for a disappointing 123 in 36.2 overs.
Foster was the destroyer for Whitehaven, taking 5-11 from his 6.2 overs.
