Bradford & Bingley barely had time to acclimatise to reaching the DIVISION ONE summit before they were brought crashing down to earth by Bradford League championship dark-horses Cleckheaton.

Just 24 hours after taking over as the third different leader of the table this month, Bingley suffered a six-wicket loss to injury-hit Cleckheaton and dropped to third place.

Pudsey St Lawrence, stung by failing to collect a single point in Saturday’s ten-wicket defeat at East Bierley, regained top spot after defeating Farsley by 43 runs.

That earned them 19 points and put them a single point ahead of Woodlands, who had a 39-run win over Saltaire.

Bingley are now a further seven points back, with East Bierley another eight adrift after defeating Undercliffe to secure their second ten-wicket win of the weekend.

With Pudsey Congs overcoming Bankfoot by seven wickets, just 29 points separate leaders St Lawrence and their sixth-placed neighbours.

At the other end of the table, Yeadon gave themselves hope of avoiding the drop and added to Baildon’s worries as they defeated last year’s champions by 63 runs.

The game that produced the greatest drama was at Moorend, where Bingley looked on course for a challenging total as they reached 108-1 thanks to a fine 71 from Simon Davies. But a dramatic collapse saw them lose their last nine wickets for 40 runs to be all out for 148.

Spinners Edward Walmsley (4-37) and Mark Cummins (3-36) turned the game in favour of a Cleckheaton side hampered by injuries which meant neither skipper John Wood nor Ian Wardlaw could bowl.

Cleckheaton, who are fifth in the table and could yet sneak up on the rails as the title race heads for the final straight, were guided safely to their victory target by overseas batsman Ammer Mahmood (48no) and Cummins (47).

St Lawrence seized their chance to regain the leadership with victory at Farsley, which was secured by a spell of 5-25 from former Farsley seamer Matthew Lumb.

He blew away the Farsley top order and even some late fireworks from James Henry (52) and skipper Chris Henry (43) could not prevent a Saints win.

Farsley were dismissed for 168 in reply to St Lawrence’s total of 211-8, which featured useful contributions from Mark Robertshaw (40), Chris Marsden (38), James Smith (37) and Steve Watts (30).

Safraz Ahmed (5-29) and Chris Brice (3-30) were in match-winning form once again for Woodlands against Saltaire. After being restricted to 166-7 – a score built around the contributions of Sam Frankland (50), Brice (43) and Dan Shuffe (36) – Woodlands hit back hard to dismiss their rivals for 127, opener Tim Jackson again their top scorer with 46.

Undercliffe cannot wait for July to come to an end. They came into it as leaders but five successive defeats have dropped them to seventh place and seemingly out of contention for honours.

They were skittled out for just 100 by a resurgent East Bierley side who are emerging as serious challengers. Even wicketkeeper Luke Holroyd (36) could not spare Undercliffe from their latest setback.

Paul Hutchison (4-30) and Muhammad Azharullah (3-15) continued their good form with the new ball, before Gavin Hamilton (61no) and Gharib Razak (39no) shared their second unbroken century opening partnership of the weekend to seal East Bierley’s latest triumph.

An unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 115 between Andy Siddall (60no) and Babar Butt (57no) steered Pudsey Congs to their comfortable seven-wicket triumph over Bankfoot.

John Barton (55) was the only Bankfoot batsman to make an impression as they were restricted to 155-8 by some economical bowling from Mark Bray (3-31) and Glenn Roberts (3-45).

The odds may appear to be stacked against them but Yeadon are continuing to fight to save their top-flight lives. They secured a convincing 63-run win at Baildon thanks to two outstanding individual performances.

Sri Lankan batsman Tharanga De Silva hit a stylish 96 as Yeadon made 190-9, before spinners Damon Gormley (7-38) and Grant Soames (3-32) bowled out last season’s champions for 127. Only Jonny Reynolds (42) and Simon Webb (39) made an impression.

Gormley’s figures were the best of the day and included an incredible five caught and bowled victims.

Sunday’s only DIVISION TWO game saw Keighley beat Brighouse by 56 runs to climb into third place. Max Davidson’s 115 helped Keighley post 226-7, with Brighouse dismissed for 170.