Carlisle took a big step towards their third successive Cumbria League Premier Division title – thanks to Keswick.
For while the champions were comfortably seeing-off bottom side Haverigg, their nearest challengers Cockermouth were coming unstuck at Keswick.
Electing to bat, Keswick were on a very uncomfortable 34-5 after an hour, having lost the top five in the batting order in rapid succession.
Cumbria county bowler Josh Brown took the three key wickets of Stevie Hindmarch (2), professional Rishith Upamal (8) and Paul Hindmarch (6).
Disaster loomed as in-form Glen Weightman and skipper Will Atkinson had also been removed by Cockermouth and Cumbria captain Matty Sempill.
Step forward Ben Sharp (33), James Benson (19), Oscar Link (29) and Finn Turnbull (37 not out) to set a respectable if catchable Keswick total of 176/9.
Brown finished with 4-47 and Sempill took 3-26.
Cockermouth started their innings slowly, and Keswick could feel the tide turning when opener Gareth White went for 18, Sempill for 13, and then pro Shrikant Mundhe was out for just 1.
Only Alex Grainger offered hope, and when he fell to an lbw for Dan Gaskell on 39, it was game on.
Unlike their hosts the Cockermouth tail did not wag and the Keswick bowlers completed the bow, bowling-out their visitors for just 145 in 44 overs.
It gave Keswick victory by 31 runs on Sponsor’s Day at Fitz Park in which Gaskell (3-28) and Paul Hindmarch (3-47) were the most successful Keswick bowlers.
Carlisle, meanwhile, were convincing in their seven wicket win over struggling Haverigg at Edenside.
Put in to bat Haverigg reached 162 when they bowled-out off the penultimate ball of the final over.
Opener Robbie Evans (45) and Jordan Postlethwaite (44) were the main contributors for Haverigg while Nico Watt (3-27) and Zephania Arinaitwe (3-37) were Carlisle’s most successful bowlers.
Openers Matthew Brown (22) and Arinaitwe (21) got Carlisle off to a solid start and after Tom Benn (12) had gone, Carlisle were carried to victory by sub pro Daniel Salpietro (56no) and Ben Davidson (29no) in 33.2 overs.
Carlisle now lead the way by 16 points with five games left, including a Bank Holiday Monday clash at home to Cockermouth.
Haverigg’s defeat had extra significance when Egremont produced a fine effort to win their Copeland derby at Whitehaven in convincing fashion.
They bowled out the Playground side for 168 in 40.3 overs after Whitehaven had choden to bat first.
Egremont made the perfect start when they had the dangerous Chase Young caught off the first ball.
Ellis Gribbin also took a return catch to dismiss home pro Terance Warde (11) and Whitehaven’s top order was blown away.
It needed resistance down the order from Leo Sanczuk (46), Lewis Keeler (32) and Billy Thompson (20) for Whitehaven to reach 168.
Gribbin bowled a fine ten overs spell which brought him 5-22; Coady Scott took 3-44 while overseas recruit Raghav Kapur bowled his ten overs for only 15 runs, with the wicket of Sanczuk when he was looking for his fifty.
Although Billy Thompson quickly got rid of Matthew Hunter (0) and Lee Cruden (1) Egremont were carried to victory from that poor start by Scott (72no) and Kupar (73no).
It means Egremont are nine points better off than Haverigg and only four behind Workington who crashed to defeat at Cleator.
Put in to bat Cleator had struggled to 123 all out in 42 overs, only pushed there by important contributions from David Blackwell (31) and Tom Sharpe (23).
Simon Beare (3-17) from ten overs did best with the ball for Workington.
Workington’s reply was a disaster as apart from skipper Matthew Lowden (22) who opened and wicket-keeper Sam Bates (15) nobody else reached double figures and they were bowled-out for 65 in 33.4 overs.
Home professional Rishabh Tiwari took 4-5 from 6.4 overs to help Cleator to a League double over their visitors.
The other two games were both well-fought as Wigton won at Dalton and Furness beat Millom in the south Cumbrian derby.
After passing 130 for the loss of only two wickets Dalton might have been a little disappointed that they were bowled-out in the end for 196 at the start of the last over.
Not surprisingly the main runs were at the top of the order through the first four batsman – Rob Jones (31), Joss Edwards (25), Shayne Moseley (26) and Daniel Sharpe (58).
Wigton’s six bowlers all took at least one wicket in a real shared attack with pro Chris Hodgson (2-24) and Dean Thomlinson (2-36) the best.
Opener George Johnston (59) Hodgson (28) and John Reed (20) got Wigton away solidly and Lewis Little (42no) was in a hurry to get it finished as he hit five fours and three sixes.
Wigton reached 197-4 for victory with seven overs to spare.
At Furness the visitors Millom elected to bat first and made a respectable 208-6 in their 50 overs.
Professional Nathan Waterston, a former Furness batsman top-scored with 93 before he was run out and then there was solid support from veteran skipper Graham Dawson (29), young prospect Callum High (28) and Lachlan Wilson (27).
Millom were looking favourites when they reduced their hosts to 128-5 but Furness were blasted to victory by sub pro Edward Moore who hit 107 off 103 balls.
On his way to the ton he hit 13 fours and three sixes to steer Furness to a four wicket win with 5.3 overs to spare.
Thomas Smith (29) and Lewis Gribbin (24) were the main scorers earlier in the innings.
Moore’s fellow South African Matthew Kleinveldt has returned home after scoring over 1,000 runs for the club.
