Bradford suffered one of their heaviest defeats in recent years away to East Riding, but their Yorkshire League title hopes were not completely shattered.

The 29-7 setback at Brough ended their 100 per cent record for the season in the Inter-Union League, but with champions Sheffield losing for the second time this year - away to Leeds - the title race is still very close.

East Riding are the new favourites for the title even though they have the same points as Bradford.

Their comprehensive win means they now have a 16-points better scoring difference and have won their two most difficult fixtures of the season - against Bradford and Sheffield.

Bradford team captain Andy Riley admitted: "We were beaten by the better team on the day. It is a bit of a fiddly course and they handled it better than we did.

"It was significant that our only two singles winners - Neil Harker-Bell and Andy Dufton - had both played there several times before."

It was never going to be easy for Bradford after they lost five of the morning foursomes against a strong home line-up that included recently-crowned Yorkshire amateur champion Richard Finch. And the match was virtually all over before Bradford won their first point of the singles, in match five with Woodhall Hills' Andy Dufton beating Hornsea's Mark Lamb 2 and 1.

Bradford Moor captain Neil Harker-Bell then won the following match by one hole against Driffield's Steve Brattan, but apart from David Beever's half against the host club's Chris Clarkson, that was an end to Bradford's scoring.

Foursomes: N Burnley (Beverley & East Riding), R Coulson (Hull) bt P Wood (Keighley), M Foster (Bradford Moor) 3/1, A Wright (Hessle), S Brattan (Driffield) lost to R Wheatley (Bingley St Ives), A Dufton (Woodhall Hills) 3/1, R Finch (Hull), M Lamb (Hornsea) bt G Evans (Northcliffe), A Town (Northcliffe) 2/1, B Ellison (Hull), M Bell (Ganton) bt H Tyrer (Ghyll), A Riley (Ghyll) 3/2, M Lill (Hull), J Samuel (Hull) bt D Woodcock (Cleckheaton), A Utley (Keighley) 5/4, C Clarkson (Brough), S Uzzell (Ganstead) bt N Harker-Bell (Bradford Moor), D Beever (Baildon) 1up.

Singles: Finch bt Wood 4/3, Coulson bt Wheatley 3/2, Burnley bt Evans 2/1, Wright bt Foster 4/2, Lamb lost to Dufton 2/1, Brattan lost to Harker-Bell 1down, Ellison bt Town 2/1, Samuel bt Riley 5/4, Lill bt Tyrer 5/4, Clarkson halved with Beever, Uzzell bt Woodcock 1up, Bell bt Utley 1up.