Despite the heavy rain of the previous week only three matches fell victim to the weather on Saturday in the Craven Football League and though grounds were heavy the majority of games were entertaining.

In the Skipton Building Society Premier Division leaders Embsay had a 4-1 victory over Keighley but were made to fight all the way by a lively Keighley side who play good football but lack someone to finish.

Oxenhope moved up into second place with a 3-1 win at Cross Hills and look like mounting a serious assault on the title. Silsden with three matches in hand on the leaders defeated neighbours Cononley 3-0 on a very heavy pitch and will be hoping for a spell of dry weather to get through their backlog of matches. Colne Cricket Club defeated Addingham 3-1 to collect two welcome points in their battle against relegation and Rimington pushed Cowling nearer Division One when they defeated them 2-0 at Cowling.

In Division One Hellifield took over top place when they drew 2-2 at Oxenhope, leaders Bradley's match against Skipton LMS falling foul of a waterlogged pitch. Carleton moved into second place on goal difference after they defeated Grindleton 5-4 and it is not often that you score four goals away from home and lose - defences must have stuck in the mud in this one.

Grassington moved up into a promotion slot with a 7-0 defeat of Gargrave while bottom club Haworth collected their first point of the season in a 2-2 draw with fellow strugglers Skipton Town.

There are new leaders in Division Two, with previous leaders Bronte Wanderers losing at home to Embsay 3-0 to allow Sutton, who were 4-0 winners at Horton, to leapfrog over them and take a point lead.

Silsden moved into third place after a 3-1 victory over Keighley and Skipton Bulldogs altered the venue of their match against Cowling to Colne and finished up sharing the points in a 1-1 draw. Skipton LMS visited Addingham and won 3-1.

Division Three is still neck and neck with the three leading teams all winning. Grassington defeated Intake 4-0 to lead on goal difference from Lothersdale who had a 3-0 victory over Bradley and Hellifield had a 4-0 home victory over Carleton, all three clubs being on 22 points.

Ilkley Juniors Youth after their big win last week came down to earth when Waddington stopped a slide of four successive defeats by winning 5-0 and Earby also stopped a run of defeats with a 1-0 victory over Skipton Town.

Premier Division

Embsay 4 Keighley 1

Both teams played their part in this entertaining game. Embsay took the lead in the fifth minute through Lee Hartley and Steve Speak got a second. Keighley keeper Jason Moore made some fine saves to keep it at 2-0 at the break. Five minutes into the second half Rob Fowler got a third goal for Embsay and then when Speak struck a sweet fourth it all seemed over for Keighley. But to their credit they never gave up and home keeper Chris Beck had to pull off a couple of fine saves before they got a deserved consolation goal through Joynal Ali.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.