Then there was one – from three joint leaders, down to two last week and now just Whitehaven at the top of the Cumbria League’s Premier Division.
A hard fought two-wicket home win over Dalton maintained their unbeaten record and they owed Workington’s win at Cockermouth to their standalone position at the top.
But Dalton, without a win so far, made them work hard to get maximum points as they had to rely on the tail to get them home with nine balls to spare.
Dalton had set a target of 186 to win after they had reached 185-8 in their 50 overs so there wasn’t much between the sides in the end.
Liam Curwen (44), professional Vaibhav Bhatt (33) and Joss Edwards (25no) were the main scorers for Dalton with Billy Thompson the leading Whitehaven bowler with 3-25.
Things didn’t go to plan in the Whitehaven reply although Steve Holliday made 43 of the 103 on the board when he was fourth out.
Sub pro Garnett Tarr had gone for 17 and at 119-6 Dalton might have considered themselves favourites.
Thompson (21) and Jonathan Stewart (17) steadied the ship but both went within a run of each other and at 156-8 a nerve-tingling finale was in the offing.
In the end Tom De Gelder (19no) and Alex Cameron (12no) saw them over the line for a precious victory. Edwards took 5-25 off his ten overs for Dalton.
At Sandair, Cockermouth were put into bat and made a decent start with Regan Scott (39) and Alex Grainger (28) putting on 66 for the first wicket.
But once skipper Matty Sempill (19) followed Cockermouth slipped to 136-6 and it was only 26 from Tom Norman that got them to 179 all out in 49.3 overs.
Tom Fox (3-37) was the most successful Workington bowler.
Although recent centurion Sam Bates went early pro Vishva Chathuranga was in early and he proceeded to dominate the Workington reply.
He only faced 101 balls but had reached 98 not out, with nine fours and three sixes when the visitors reached their target at the start of the 40th over, and with five wickets to spare.
The experienced Kristian Moffat helped the pro see the visitors over the line after three wickets had gone fairly quickly.
The Sri Lankan was following up a blistering century in last Sunday’s Higson Cup win at Dalton. Best support came from Ollie Armstrong (21) and skipper Jake Daniel (20. Ethan Hardie-Knight took 3-37 for Cockermouth.
After sharing the lead for three weeks Keswick have becalmed by a surprise league defeat at Wigton and then a Higson Cup exit at Cleator.
But they were back on course with a home victory over Millom by 33 runs in another low-scoring game at Fitz Park.
Electing to bat first Keswick opener Oscar Link ended as top-scorer with 32 after he was fourth out.
Next best was tail-ender Andy Rigg with 19.
They were bowled out for 137 in 46.1 overs with Luke Sumner (3-22), Ben High (2-14) and Josh Mackie (2-21) doing best with the ball for Millom.
When professional Nathan Waterston went for 15 Millom were struggling at 39-4 but skipper Graham Dawson dug in to give his side a chance.
Robert Thompson (19) gave him some support but when Dawson himself went for a dogged 27 the end was in sight.
They were bowled out for 104 at the start of the 42nd over with Meljo Jose (3-10) and Paul Hindmarch (3-26) the most successful Keswick bowlers.
Chris Hodgson (3-3) and Matthew Hodgson (3-3) helped Wigton bowl out Carlisle seconds and set up an eight win at Edenside.
It was a second successive win after their fine effort against Keswick.
Put into bat Carlisle only had two batsmen in double figures – Jordan Oultram (18) and overseas amateur David Rhoda (15) as they were bundled out for 61.
Dan Wilson was 34 not out in Wigton’s winning reply of 66-2 in 16.1 overs.
The other game was a well-contested affair with Furness beating visitors Cleator by 32 runs.
Put in to bat Furness made 227-5 in their 50 overs led by Thomas Smith (77), Pramod Maduwantha (73no) and Samson Storey (42). Cleator pro Dilan Jayalath took 2-39.
Jayalath top-scored with 37 in Cleator’s reply, with best support from Adam Magean (25), Darren Clark (24) and Ben Wishart (22) but they were dismissed for 189 overs with one over remaining.
Gary Thompson was the most successful bowler for the champions with 5-31 off nine overs.
