Carlisle are now within touching distance of a third successive Cumbria League Premier Division title.
For while they were beating Whitehaven at Edenside rivals Cockermouth were slipping to defeat at Furness.
It means the champions have a 15 point lead going into the last two games and victory at Workington on Saturday would guarantee them the crown again before they finish off at Keswick on September 14.
It was perhaps fitting that their professional Michael Slack was back after recovering from knee surgery which has kept him sidelined for the greater part of the season.
Runs were hard to come by after Carlisle inserted their west Cumbrian visitors and they bowled them out for 79 in 38.2 overs. Only professional Terance Warde (27) seemed comfortable with the conditions as Kian Larmour (10) was the only other player in double figures.
Chris Blythe (3-22) and Johnny Westgarth (3-15) were the main wicket-takers while Slack eased himself back into the old routine with seven tight overs (0-14).
A shock might have been on the cards as Carlisle slumped to 37-5 with Slack (11) among the victims but a match-winning stand of 42 between Tom Benn (15) and Ben Davidson (19no) carried the hosts to the brink of victory.
For Whitehaven Lewis Keeler had 3-39 and Warde took 2-19, each from their maximum 10 overs.
Meanwhile Cockermouth were beaten at Furness by 12 runs in a high-scoring affair.
Furness had elected to bat and in their 50 overs accumulated 232-5 with some solid scoring through the order – Lewis Gribbin (39), Faizan Ghumann (42), Thomas Smith (31), Mark Daly (46no) and Garry Thompson (24no).
Skipper Matthew Sempill (2-42) from his ten overs, was the main wicket taker for Cockermouth.
Professional Shrikant Mundhe was Cockermouth’s main hope but he was out for 80 in the 48th over with the visitors 20 short of victory.
The last Cockermouth pair could only add seven off the remaining 15 deliveries and a tight finish went the way of Furness.
Openers Gareth White (28) and Alex Grainger (22) had put on 54 for the first wicket and both went at the same score. Josh Brown made 21 down the order.
Thompson (4-18) from his 10 overs was the pick of the Furness bowlers.
It’s a bit tighter at the bottom of the table where a Haverigg win and an Egremont defeat left the two candidates for the drop just two points apart going into these two final games.
Haverigg were convincing winners at Dalton by 78 runs after they were put into bat and made 215-7 led by Adithya Siriwardhana (79no). Sub pro Siriwardhana is the professional with East Lancs in the Lancashire League.
He was supported by Robbie Evans (27), Zac Mawdsley (24), Dale Graham (24) and Jordan Postlethwaite (21).
Lewis Woodend (2-25) off 10 overs was the pick of the Dalton bowlers.
Dan Sharp and Liam Curwen both made 22 for Dalton who were bowled-out for 140 as Evans took 4-24 from 6.5 overs to help steer the visitors to a vital victory.
Egremont only picked-up two points in a six wickets defeat at Keswick to put everything on the final two games.
They are at home to Cleator and away to Workington whilst Haverigg have Keswick at home and Millom away.
Put into bat they were bowled-out in 40.2 overs for 135 which was a decent recovery after they had slumped to 48-5. Alex Hodgson, who was last out for 42, led the lower order response. Dan Gaskell (3-22) was the most successful Keswick bowler.
After Stephen Hindmarch had gone early, Keswick were carried well towards victory by a second wicket partnership of 71 between opener Glen Weightman (64no) and professional Risith Upamal (45).
They collected the 10 points at 139-4 after 32.3 overs with Hodgson (2-34) doing his bit with the ball as well as the bat for Egremont.
Millom professional Nathan Waterston has blossomed over the second half of the season and he top-scored against Workington with 98. He and Graham Dawson (66) put on 148 for the fourth wicket – and as so often happens both fell on the same score.
They completed their 50 overs with 217-5 after electing to bat when winning the toss. Jack White (3-29) from 10 overs was the pick of the Workington bowlers.
White was also Workington’s main hope of reaching their required total but he was out for 50 at 102-6 and the only real resistance after that came from Kristian Moffat (27no) and they were eventually dismissed for 164 with one over left.
Declan Tyson (3-34), Callum High (3-40) and Braith Conner (3-46) shared the bowling honours for Millom.
In the other game Wigton were convincing nine wicket winners at Cleator after they invited the home side to bat first.
It proved a sound move as they had Cleator 2-2 and then 38-5 before the hosts were finally restricted to 99-8 in their 50 overs. Skipper Tom Sharpe was the top scorer with 34 while Lewis Little (4-22) was the pick of the Wigton bowlers.
Openers John Reed (63no) and Kieran Little (34) virtually knocked off the required runs but they reached 101-1 right at the start of the 21st over to pocket the ten points.
