Steeton moved to the top of the Airedale and Wharfedale B Division after a comprehensive six-wicket victory over championship rivals Pool.

After winning the toss and asking the visitors to bat Steeton got off to the best possible start when Neil Spragg had Pool's overseas player Simon Dart caught at second slip by cousin Paul in his first over. Paul Hardwick followed up by having the other opener Singleton caught by keeper Neil Wilson.

Pool then consolidated and reached 95 runs at the half way stage with the only further loss of S Wood out LBW to Nick Carroll. At 158-3 with 15 overs remaining Pool looked like achieving a sizeable total especially with M Murphy (98) and M McEneaney (46) in full flight.

However, they were pegged back when Lee Spragg (2-52) had McEneaney caught and opening bowlers Paul Hardwick (2-47) and Neil Spragg returned and slowed the run rate down significantly. Spragg cleaned up the tail to finish with 5-30.

When the last Pool batsmen was out in the final over, they had reached a 223total.

In reply Steeton got off to a flying start and were 64 for the loss of Paul Spragg (25) after only 10 overs. When skipper Alex Howarth (37) was out in the 16th over the score was 95. Nick Carroll (40) and John Akrigg (24) added 28 for the third wicket before both fell just before drinks.

John Best (47no) and Neil Spragg (40no) steadied the ship before seeing Steeton to victory with nine overs remaining.

Steeton scored 226-4 in 41.1 overs to win by six wickets.

Silsden are in fifth place after going down to a six-wicket defeat at Collingham.

Chris Meehand scored 41 and Ian Sagar added 32 but they were restricted to 128-9 as Steve Booth took 5-32 in an 18-over spell.

Collingham knocked off the runs in just 32 overs for the loss of four wickets.

Silsden 2nd XI were indebuted to Stuart Tillotson's innings of 91 and a 5-42 spell of bowling from Tom Waggett as they got the bett3er of a draw with Ben Rhydding.

Silsden batted first and made 190-6 with Ian Pullen the only other batsman to top 25 runs. In reply Ben Rhydding's A Stoddart scored 61 and Graham Parker was out off the last ball of the innings for 47 as the visitors closed on 148-8 with Dave baluk taking 2-29 from 20 overs.

Steeton v Pool

Pool: S Dart c P Spragg b N Spragg 1, D Singleton b Hardwick 2, S Wood lbw Carroll 30, D Murphy c Best b N Spragg 98, M McEneaney c Carroll, b L Spragg 46, R Carlton b L Spragg 6, M Naylor b N Spragg 24, R Henry b Hardwick 0, P Wilkinson c Hardwick b N Spragg 3, P Webster not out 1, extras 9. Total 223.

Bowling: P Hardwick 16-1-47-2, N Spragg 11-2-30-5, J Best 3-0-24-0, N Carroll 11-3-66-1, L Spragg 9-1-53-2.

Steeton: P Spragg b Naylor 25, A Howarth c Webster b Wood 37, N Carroll c Webster b Naylor 40, J Akrigg lbw Wood 24, N Spragg not out 47, J Best not out 40, extras 13. Total 226-4.

Bowling: S Dart 4-0-32-0, M McEneaney 5-1-26-0, M Naylor 10.1-0-63-2, SWood 12-3-45-2, R Henry 10-2-50-0.

Silsden 2nds XI v Ben Rhydding

Silsden: S Tillotson b taylor 91, T Waggett c Stoddard b Taylor 16, P Tatterton c Smith b Taylor 10, I Pullen run out 27, J Tillotson not out 15, D Baluk run out 8, C Spencer run out 1, M Knappy not out 6 extras 16. Total 190-6.

Bowling: R Dowthwaite 11-0-53-0, R D Smith 8-2-32-0, P Taylor 15-1-43-3, N Hatton 8-1--25-0, P Armitage 8-1-23-0.

Ben Rhydding: A Stoddart c Baluk b Waggett 61, R A Smith st Tatterton b Waggett 4, J Bielby c Ridley b Baluk 4, G Parker c Baluk b Tillotson 47, R Holland c Pullen b Waggett 9, N Hatton c Spencer b Waggett 0, P taylor c & b Baluk 0, P Armitage b Waggett 2, P Wheatley not out 6, extras 15. Total 148-8.

Bowling: D Baluk 20-8-29-2, T Waggett 16-6-42-5, C Spencer 2-0-13-0, B Sagar 3-0-19-0, K Lawrence 3-0-14-0, J Tillotson 6-1-22-1.