There will be more twists and turns before the Cumbria League’s Premier Division title is decided at the end of the season.
But there was another tweak yesterday which saw the running order changed with Keswick beating the rain and Dalton to go back on top.
In a tense finish at Sandair leaders Cockermouth succumbed to Whitehaven, losing the lead in the table as well while Furness were rained off when looking well placed for a win over bottom side Carlisle seconds.
The winners of Millom v Workington could have closed the gap on the top three but their game was also ended early by rain.
So the big winners on the day were Keswick who had a revised target after bowling out their hosts Dalton for 127.
It was a total built around the innings of Liam Curwen (68), scored from 78 deliveries batting at number five and hitting nine fours and two sixes.
Professional Nisala Tharaka (3-12) and Paul Hindmarch (3-39) did most of the damage for Keswick.
With a revised target of 86 and rain threatening Keswick didn’t hang about and openers Andrew Rigg (39no) and Glen Weightman (34no) saw them home at the start of the 14th over.
Cockermouth, meanwhile, stuttered at home to Whitehaven a team they had beaten a week ago in the semi-final of the Higson Cup.
This time, in a game reduced to 48 overs a side, Whitehaven set a target of 156 after they had reached 155-9 in their allotted overs.
Put in to bat Whitehaven got them many largely due to pro Kevin Peters (39) and opener Stephen Holliday (29).
Four Cockermouth bowlers took two wickets apiece with the best returns by Ethan Hardie-Knight (2-16) and Gabriel Drimmie (2-20).
Ryan Carruthers (29) was prominent early on in Cockermouth’s reply but from 80-3 they slumped to 99-8 to hand the advantage to Whitehaven.
It needed a ninth wicket stand of 35 between Sam Scully (24no) and Hardie-Knight (23) to give Cockermouth an outside chance but they were marooned on 148-9 at the close, eight runs short of victory.
Thirteen were needed off the last over from Perera and they could only manage five. It gave Whitehaven successive wins over Furness and Cockermouth to atone for five successive league defeats.
Sachin George took 3-23 and Billy Thompson had 2-21 for Whitehaven.
Furness had racked up 222-8 at home to Carlisle seconds in 40 overs but that was when the game ended.
Top scorers were Pramod Maduwantha (65), George Smith (62) and Caolan O’Connor (26) with overseas amateur David Rhoda taking 3-43.
At Millom the Workington openers Sam Bates (72no) and Matt Lowden (43no) had taken the west Cumbrians to 136-0 from 26 overs and there was no more play.
There was a result at Cleator, though, where the home side beat Wigton by 20 runs.
Professional Dilan Jayalath (142) had figured in an opening stand of 107 with Ben Wishart (35) while Darren Clark chipped in with 24 to see Cleator reach 219-5 in 37 overs.
Wigton batted the same number of overs and had reached 199-8 when the game ended.
The innings was built on two partnerships – between Chris Hodgson (32) and John Reed (42) – putting on 57 for the sixth wicket – and Sam Murdock (17) with Mikey Thomlinson (42no) who put on 44 for the eighth wicket.
Jayalath rounded off a fine day’s work for Cleator by taking 3-35 while skipper Doug Hughes had 2-21.
League positions, all played 12 games – Keswick 98; Cockermouth 95; Furness 89; Millom 84; Workington 81; Whitehaven 74; Wigton 66; Cleator 65; Dalton 52; Carlisle 2nds 27.
