Cricket matches don’t come much better than the thrill served up between Furness and Workington.
Billed as the Cumbria League’s match of the day it was a cliffhanger which lived up to the pre-match hype between second in the table and fourth.
Fortunes swayed to and fro throughout an absorbing contest before Furness clinched victory by one wicket.
During the game Workington recovered from 33-6 to reach 122 all out, while Furness went from 75-1 to 112-9 before edging home by one wicket.
In addition two of the best scoring professionals in the league suffered rare failures with Workington’s Vishva Chathuranga making only nine and home star Pramod Maduwantha going for a first ball duck.
Workington’s tail certainly wagged to get them out of trouble with runs in the last five from Callum Sutton (28), Kristian Moffat (21) and Matt Lowden (21).
Most of the early damage had been caused by Samson Storey (4-31) and Pete Lawson (3-29) as Workington were bowled-out in 36.2 overs.
The Furness response played-out in reverse manner with runs at the top of the order from Lewis Gribbin (39), Tom Smith (22) and Storey (17) before the collapse.
It was left to the final pair of Gary Thompson (9no) and Lawson (5no) to secure the 11 runs they needed for victory when they came together.
Adam Chambers (5-24) was the leading Workington bowler.
Champions Furness, however, remain nine points behind Keswick as the Lakesiders continued their winning run by beating Cleator at Fitz Park.
Electing to bat first Keswick lost half their side for 74 with Andy Rigg (38) contributing more than half.
Will Atkinson (31) and Oscar Link (23) steadied things with the best stand of the innings but they were eventually bowled-out for a not too-imposing 155.
Dilan Jayalath (2-13), Ben Wishart (2-24) and Tom Sharpe (2-26) were the main wicket-takers for Cleator.
Professional Jayalath (32) and Sharpe (23) went well to raise Cleator’s hopes but when Sharpe went at 82-5 the end was in sight as they quickly declined to 101 all out.
Maljo Jose (7-33) proved to be the Keswick hero with a league-best performance from his 9.2 overs.
Cockermouth stayed in the contest with an important win over Wigton after their recent defeat by leaders Keswick.
Alex Grainger (49) and Gareth White (23) were the main reasons Cockermouth got to three figures but they had lost seven wickets in the process.
The innings was given more substance by late contributions from wicket-keeper Sam Scully (30no) and overseas amateur Jacob Madigan (27) as they were bowled-out for 164 in the last over. Sam Murdock was the most successful Wigton bowler with 4-59.
Lewis Little (46) started well at the top of the order for Wigton, scoring at a run-a-ball but although several made promising starts they couldn’t stay long enough and the visitors were eventually bowled out for 136 in 45 overs.
Grainger produced a fine 10-over spell which earned him 4-9 as Cockermouth won by 28 runs.
Whitehaven’s dismal run continued with a fourth successive defeat and they have now gone from top to sixth in a nightmare month.
Latest setback was defeat by six wickets at home to Millom after they won the toss and elected to bat.
Ex-Seascale batsman Adam Brown hit his best score since switching clubs, unbeaten with 53 in the middle order.
Professional Kevin Perera (36) and Jonathan Stewart (24) also contributed to the 50-overs total of 185-9.
Oscar Mackie (3-46) was the main wicket-taker for Millom.
Skipper Graham Dawson (64) promoted himself to open the Millom innings and he and pro Nathan Waterston (35) put on 106 for the first wicket.
Lachlan Wilson (38no) then guided Millom to victory on 187-4 with 10-4 overs to spare.
The fifth game featured the two bottom sides and proved to be a good contest before Dalton won at Carlisle seconds by 16 runs.
After deciding to bat Dalton were bowled-out for 196 in 44.3 in an innings dominated by their professional Vaibhav Bhatt who finished agonisingly close to a century on 96no. Next best was Adam Hunter on 27. Harvey Ion took 3-28 for Carlisle.
The home side, looking for their first win, gave it a good go but eventually came up short on 180-9.
Freddie Newton (40), Jonathan Musgrave (33) and Jordan Whinn (32) led the way.
Lewis Woodend took 3-32 for Dalton.
