Cockermouth produced a splendid recovery to stay in the Cumbria League’s Premier Division title race and complete a miserable fortnight for early leaders Whitehaven.
Two successive defeats for previously unbeaten Whitehaven have seen them now drop to fifth with Cockermouth in pursuit of Keswick.
The Sandair side had been rocking at 33-5 after being put in to bat at the Playground and opening bowler Jonathan Stewart had claimed three of the wickets.
It then needed a captain’s innings from Matty Sempill to steady the ship and give Cockermouth a fighting chance.
Sempill finished with 76 as Cockermouth reached 146-8 at the end of their 50 overs.
He figured in a sixth wicket stand of 60 with Jacob Madigan (14) and 41 for the seventh with Frazer Sealby (15), vital stands to reshape the innings.
Stewart finished with the admirable figures of 3-8 off 10 overs and Josh Foster had 3-24, also off 10.
Whitehaven lost Stephen Holliday early and need Kian Larmour’s 46 to give their innings some substance.
Professional Kevin Perera was bowled by Madigan for 15 and the dangerous Chase Young hit two fours and a six in his four-ball stay before being caught and bowled by Gabriel Drimmie.
Larmour was seventh out at 93 and the Whitehaven innings subsided quickly to 100 all out.
Drimmie finished with 5-35 while overseas amateur Madigan took 4-7 from 7.4 overs.
Keswick, however, continue to show the way after their important win at Whitehaven last week and they followed up with a seven wicket victory over Dalton at Fitz Park.
Choosing to bat Dalton were reliant on opener Rob Jones (33) who was fifth out at 83 but they were unable to push on from there and were eventually bowled-out for 117.
Spinner Dan Gaskell with 4-18 was the most successful Keswick bowler.
James McGown (27no), Andy Rigg (23) and Nisala Tharaka (21) saw that Keswick reached their target comfortably with seven wickets and 28 overs to go.
Champions Furness are on the move and sit third now nine points behind the leaders.
They were also comfortable winners at bottom side Carlisle seconds and went on to win by eight wickets.
The hosts were 27-4 but Craig Holliday (22), Oliver Driver (22) and David Rhoda (14) rallied in the middle order and they eventually reached 92 in 38.4 overs. Josh Shaw (3-7) and Pramod Maduwantha (3-17) were the leading Furness bowlers.
George Smith (46no) and Samson Storey (33) put on 62 for the first wicket and they eventually won by eight wickets in the 20th over.
Workington have certainly recruited a gem in new pro Vishva Chathuranga as another century helped his side move to fourth in the table with a win over Millom.
Chathuranga is the League’s top scorer and this 103 not out was made out of a winning Workington reply of 143-6. It was made off 101 deliveries and included 11 fours and three sixes.
Simon Beare (18) was the only other Workington player in double figures with Oliver Mackie (3-30) the leading Millom bowler.
Millom had been put in to bat and were in early trouble when Beare took three early wickets, including that of Millom’s in form pro Nathan Waterston for ten.
Lachlan Wilson (27), skipper Graham Dawson (22) and Cody Williamson (20) rallied Millom after those early set-backs before a last wicket stand of 25 between Mackie (14) and Lucas Sumner (10no) saw them reach 142 in the 44th over.
Cleator collected their third win of the season at the expense of Wigton as they were successful by 62 runs at Lowmoor Road.
Put into bat Cleator’s innings of 201-5 was built around a fourth wicket stand of 120 between Darren Clark (81) and Tom Sharpe (45).
Dean Thomlinson (2-14) bowled a good ten over spell for Wigton who started their reply disastrously, losing three wickets for 12 runs.
John Reed (38) and Chris Hodgson (20) stopped the rot but once they went there was only a late response from Matthew Hodgson (22no) before they were bowled-out for 39 in the 36th over. Cleator pro Dilan Jayalath took 6-49.
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