The Cumbria League’s Premier Division title chase took another turn on Saturday with the weather making a crucial intervention.
Leaders Carlisle were unable to play in their scheduled fixture at Millom because of the conditions but Cockermouth got in a reduced game at home to Cleator, won it and are back in with a shout.
However, to make any sort of telling impact they must follow up tomorrow in the big game at Edenside when the top two are due to meet – weather permitting.
Cockermouth’s clash with Cleator at Sandair was reduced to 20 overs a side and when asked to bat first the visitors made 87-3 with Ben Wishart (29) and Raghav Kurkal (28no) top-scoring.
Mindful of any more raining threatening to derail their response Cockermouth didn’t hang about and were prepared to lose wickets in the chase.
They eventually got to 88-7 to claim the win after 15.5 overs with Alex Grainger (33no) the steadying hand on the tiller. Rishabh Tiwari, the Cleator pro, took 4-34.
So Cockermouth go into tomorrow’s game at Carlisle 10 points in arrears and then there are just three games left to play.
As well as Millom v Carlisle, neighbouring Haverigg v Whitehaven was also abandoned without a ball being bowled.
The other important game that was played saw Egremont miss out, beaten at home by Dalton – going under by 32 runs.
But they did enough to earn four points in defeat after Dalton had made 161-9 in their 50 overs.
The Egremont target was reduced to 155 in 46 overs after rain intervened but they were bowled out for 129 in 40 overs.
They did get a fair bit of cricket at Wigton but eventually they had to give up and settle for four points apiece.
Keswick had batted first and given 30 overs reached an impressive 182-3 with runs from Glen Weightman (58), Risith Upamal (48no) and Paul Hindmarch (49).
Wigton had made 71-3 off 16.1 overs when they had to run for cover and never got on again. Kieran Little (26) and John Reed (21) made the best contributions.
Workington struggled again, beaten at home by Furness as they went under at home to Furnes by six wickets.
Put in to bat the west Cumbrians were bowled out for 79 in 35.4 overs with Australian Jack White top-scoring with 18. Four Furness bowlers took two wickets each – Ryan Griffiths (2-1), Garry Thompson (2-6), sub pro Rumesh Buddhika (2-14) and Faizan Ghumman (2-22).
Lewis Gibbin (29) and Samson Storey (26) gave Furness a solid start and although they lost Buddhika and Ghumman cheaply they were almost over the line.
Former Cumbria wicket-keeper Callum Moffat turned arm over to good effect taking 3-33.
