It was yet another Craven Cricket League Saturday where the weather had a big say in proceedings. The joint leaders of the First Division were both affected by delayed starts with both managing to win through.
Oakworth were at home to Bradley looking to reinforce their authority after their previous Sunday's victory in the Wynn Cup Semi-Finals. The visitors batted first and made 141-7, Neil Robinson scoring 53 and Eddie Drake 21 and Robert Jeffrey taking 4-58 off 15 overs. The Cure Hill side passed that total for the loss of six wickets in the 37th over, Michael Scarborough making 50 and Steve Lilley 37.
Meanwhile at Gargrave after much mopping up Embsay lost the toss and were asked to bat. They lost two early wickets before the innings gained momentum and closed on 151-5 declared with Duncan Bullough scoring 76. Gargrave started brightly by putting on 50 for the first wicket. However with an 8pm finish in place the visitors needed to bowl 25 overs in the last hour to snatch the points and they managed it with a few minutes to spare, backed up by some tremendous fielding, with the home side hanging on at 117-7 to no avail. Andrew Facey made 56 and Tim Buckle 27 as Daniel Stephens took 4-43 and John Metcalfe 3-37.
Haworth are enjoying their first season back in the top flight and are third after seeing off the challenge of Foulridge by 21 runs.
The Bronte side batted first and posted 179 with Trevor Christian in the runs again with 58 and Colin Williamson hitting 43 as Nawaz took 5-48. The Noyna side were dismissed for 158 with Duncan Marsden taking 4-18.
Carleton, who are fourth, dropped two points behind Haworth after their game over at Pendle Forest was called off without a ball being bowled.
Upper Wharfedale did themselves a lot of good by beating off the challenge of Cowling in a very high scoring game up at Wood Lane. The Dalesmen were at their cavalier best as they smashed 251-6, Glen Harrison scoring a superb 112 and Paul Drinkall 56 and Neil Hargreaves taking 3-61.
Cowling, desperate for the points themselves, made a massive effort to overtake the home side, but they fell 40 runs short of their target, Martyn Dalby scoring 66 and Mark Richardson and Hargreaves both 42. Their undoing was the timely introduction of John Stephenson into the attack -- he took 6-40 which included a hat trick.
In the basement battle at Sutton the home side managed a five-wicket victory over next to bottom Cononley which has moved them up to eighth place. The visitors were restricted to 126 with Ian Thompson top scoring on 33 as Gary Williams took 5-42. Paul Williams, 31, led the successful reply.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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