John Akrigg reached a landmark achieved by very few cricketers when he hit a match-saving 89 as Steeton battled to 193-8 in reply to Beckwithshaw’s 252-3.

That took the 40-year-old past 10,000 runs, scored in his two spells at the club, and earned Steeton two points against one of the favourites for this season’s Aire-Wharfe League Division One title.

Defending champions Collingham showed they will not give up their crown easily with a win over Ben Rhydding, who seemed in with a good chance of an upset when an inspired spell from Jason Wright (7-64) restricted the home side to 189-9.

A half century stand between Charlie Swallow and Robbie Miller saw the visitors to 54-1 but they lost their next five wickets for the addition of only 16 runs and were dismissed for 128.

Alex Bell got his Guiseley captaincy off to a winning start at Harden.

He hit 41 not out and shared an unbeaten century stand with 20-year-old Aussie Tallan Wright (71no) in Guiseley’s 194-3 before newly promoted Harden were bowled out for 48, James Roper the only player to reach double figures.

Mike Truswell (71no) and Nick Brook (58) led the way in Burley’s 233-9 but it wasn’t quite enough because Pool marked their return to the top flight by edging the match by five wickets with one ball to spare.

Andrew Rhodes (5-14) and James Wilcock (3-10 on debut) skittled out Kirkstall for 60, including ten extras, a total Otley knocked off in 12 overs.

Thackley signalled their determination to bounce straight back from relegation to Division Two with a decisive win over Bardsey.

Yasser Ali (76no) top-scored in their 150, which came to a premature halt with a hat-trick from Umer Yaqoob (6-25). But the visitors could find no answer to Nasser Jamal (6-27) and collapsed to 65.

Rawdon are determined to go at least one better than last season’s third place and got off to flying start.

Andrew Doidge (64) and Joe Loorham (65) were the main contributors to their 233-6 before George Myers (4-24) and John Hughes (3-21) bowled out Colton for 83.

On debut after his switch from Salts, James Pearson took 5-42 as Ilkley dismissed North Leeds for 164. The reply was struggling at 30-3 but Ian Chaplin (66no) shared half-century stands with Nick Cockcroft and Jeremy Batty to clinch victory.

Danny Groom (76) and Andrew Bourne (71no and 3-41) were the heroes as Tong Park Esholt took four points at Knaresborough on their first match after promotion, while Adeel Ashraf (5-31) starred as Calverley were dismissed for 118, setting up a three-wicket win for Green Lane despite the efforts of Jon Hudson (4-25) and Naveed Panesar (3-39).

Mike Oldfield (4-46) helped restrict relegated Adel to 167-6 but the Bolton Villas batting struggled and they went down by 57 runs.

Skipton finished rock bottom last season but exploded into this year’s Division Three campaign, crushing Illingworth.

Steve Carling (102) shared century stands with Arshad Latif (75) and Ben Holderness (45no) in their 238-4 before Richard Nichols (5-32) led the attack as the visitors slumped to 88.

Ian Thomas (53) and Chris Wheeler (34 and 4-16) led the way as Olicanian beat Upper Wharfedale by 134 runs in the battle between the two relegated sides, and Addingham overcame Menston despite Gareth Lee (7-30) turning in the league’s best bowling performance of the day.

Jack Roberts took 5-8 in 5.2 overs to clinch Silsden’s win at Horsforth while Hall Park were bowled out three runs short of victory after Denis Rock (5-25) restricted Woodhouse to 138.