Bradford captain Andy Riley refused to be downhearted, despite the shock of seeing all his top four players beaten as they were held to an 18-18 draw by Huddersfield-Halifax at Fixby in the Yorkshire League.

After edging the morning foursomes 7-5 with all the top three pairings winning Riley must have been quietly confident of taking maximum points to keep their title hopes on the boil.

But Bradford Open runner-up Mark Evans, West Bradford club-mate Darryl Berry, Bingley St Ives' Richard Wheatley and Telegraph & Argus golfer of the year Gareth Evans (Northcliffe) were all beaten in the opening afternoon singles.

"I couldn't believe it really," admitted Riley. "I thought we would get something out of the top four.

"But it is not a complete disaster. We knew we had to beat Sheffield and East Riding in our last two matches anyway and nothing has changed that."

It needed wins by Keighley's Phil Wood, playing down the order at five, and Bradford Moor's Neil Harker-Bell to get Bradford back on track and after a defeat for Russell Simpson, the visitors took seven of the last ten points available to snatch a draw.

Not for the first time it was the cool head of Keighley's Andy Utley who made the match all square with his 2&1 win over Bradley Park's Paul Taylor in the final match.

One of the highlights of the day was a hole in one by Northcliffe's Bradford Boys champion Andy Town at the 214-yard 13th on his way to a 2&1 win over Meltham's Chris Rudd.

East Riding's 24-12 defeat of Harrogate gives them a one point advantage over Bradford at the top of the table with two fixtures to go.

Results

Foursomes: N Williams (Fixby), C Dyson (Woodsome Hall), lost to D Berry (West Bradford), M Evans (West Bradford) 4-3, T Brushwood (Willow Valley), S Martin (West End) lost to P Wood (Keighley), R Wheatley (Bingley St Ives) 4-2, A Hollingworth (Bradley Park), M Cockroft (Bradley Park) lost to G Evans (Northcliffe), A Town (Northcliffe) 1 down, C Rudd (Meltham), R Oddy (Lightcliffe) halved with R Simpson (West Bowling), K Curran (South Bradford), T Taylor (Bradley Park), J Stokes (Fixby) beat N Harker-Bell (Bradford Moor), A Riley (Ghyll) 6/5, I Powell (Hebden Bridge), D Astin (Hebden Bridge) beat A Utley (Keighley), M Clarkson (Keighley) 1 up.

Singles: Oddy beat M Evans 4/3, Martin beat Berry 6/4, Dyson beat Wheatley 2/1, Cockroft beat G Evans 1 up, Williams lost to Wood 3/2, Brushwood lost to Harker-Bell 5/4, Hollingworth beat Simpson 5/3, Rudd lost to Town 2/1, Stokes lost to Curran 1 down, Powell halved with Riley, Astin beat Clarkson 5/3, Taylor lost to Utley 2/1.