Despite heavy rain overnight and early morning yesterday, all the matches in the Bradford Central League started after a lot of hard work from the groundsman, and it turned out to be a difficult day for most of the batsman.

The exception was Girlington's in-form pair of Habib ur Rehman and Musawar Shah, who scored 66 and 65 respectvely as they set leaders Allerton a target of 229 to chase, with Kamran Raza taking 4-67.

Surprisingly Allerton never came to terms in their innings and were bowled for just 144, M Shah returning 4-26.

This shock defeat allowed Apperley Bridge to narrow the gap after their comfortable eight-wicket win over Great Horton Church, who had set them a target of 155.

Imran Khan was in the runs again, scoring 50 for the second week running. In reply, Apperley Bridge had the better of conditions on a drying wicket and romped home with time to spare.

In the other completed game in Division One, Thornbury beat Salem Athletic by 92 runs.

Steady batting from Kamran Ali (46), A Halim (41) and Kaleem Afzaal (40) were their mainstay in their total of 169-7.

Salem never had an answer to Mohammed Waqar, who ended with figures of 6-39 as they were bowled out for 87.

In Division Two, Salem Seconds continued their march towards the title with an easy eight-wicket win over Thornbury Seconds, thanks to the bowling of M Siraj (5-28). Thornbury could only score 112.

However, there were plenty of runs at Allerton, where the home side scored 223, with Mohammed Nisar and Abdul Azeem top-scoring with 42 each.

Mohammed Faleh was the only batsman to score a half-century in the match as he helped Girlington to pick up two points in their total of 189-7, despite the efforts of Mohammed Afzaal, who took 4-41.

Great Horton Church Seconds, made up of eight players from their successful under-15 team, found conditions difficult batting first at Apperley Bridge and managed a total of 122-9, with skipper Abrar Hussain holding the youngsters together, finishing 40 not out.

As conditions improved, Adil Khan (52) saw Bridge home by seven wickets.