WHO can catch Pudsey St Lawrence? That’s the question other Division One clubs are asking after they extended their unbeaten start to the season to ten matches with a five-wicket win at Undercliffe.
St Lawrence, who are 25 points clear of second placed Woodlands, dismissed struggling Undercliffe for 143, of which opener Hamid Khan scored 77 not out.
They did not have things all their own way as they pursued their winning target, losing their first five wickets for 81 before an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 64 between Callam Goldthorp (49) and Tom Hudson (26) guided them to their ninth win.
Woodlands stayed in touch with the leaders after a three-wicket victory at Pudsey Congs. Logan Weston made an unbeaten 59 as they passed Congs' total of 180 with three overs to spare.
The top scorers for Congs were opener Nick Lindley (71) and Callum Geldart (43). Slow left-arm bowler Chris Brice with 4-24 and Duncan Snell (3-46) were the best of the Woodlands bowlers.
Yorkshire’s former Essex and Northamptonshire all-rounder James Middlebrook played the day’s outstanding innings with 128, including four sixes and 13 fours, to help New Farnley to a 165-run win at Lightcliffe.
Middlebrook shared an opening stand of 190 with Mattie Good (79) as New Farnley posted 294-8, teenage slow left arm bowler Daanyaal Ahmed took 4-29 for Lightcliffe.
Yorkshire strength and conditioning coach Ian Fisher (3-16) and Nick Johnson (3-31) helped bowl out Lightcliffe for 129 with only Rhys Jowett (66) showing much resistance.
The day's best bowling figures came from paceman Matt Simpson. He took 7-40 as his side beat visitors East Bierley by five wickets.
Simpson and fellow pace bowler Jack Hartley reduced Bierley to 12-5 before Richard Atkins (45) and Nick Rushworth (31) staged a recovery. However, Bierley were still in deep trouble at 111-9 before a last-wicket stand of 53 between overseas player Haziq Tareen (56no) and Luke Jarvis gave a competitive score of 164.
Bingley also made a bad start as they slipped to 19-3 and the game was still in the balance at 72-5 before David Clow (59) and Chris Thompson (40) guided them home with an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 95.
Pace bowler Iain Wardlaw took 6-46 as defending champions Cleckheaton bowled out bottom club Saltaire for 139 to seal a 68-run win.
Consistent batting by Tim Jackson (54), skipper John Wood (44), Andrew Gorrod (32) and Ian Nicholson (30) enabled Cleckheaton to reach 207 as Adeel Ashraf took 4-49.
Opener Nick Connolly made an unbeaten 119, his second century of the season, as Hanging Heaton posted 296-4 to beat second-bottom Farsley by 91 runs. Connolly, who hit one six and 14 fours shared a third-wicket stand of 177 with former Farsley skipper Ian Philliskirk (92).
Greg Pickles (68) top scored in Farsley's 205-8 as Philliskirk (3-43) and Gary Fellows (3-54) proved to be the best of the bowlers.
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