Heworth demolish Malton (From Gazette & Herald)

Heworth demolish Malton

Hunters Estate Agent York & District Senior League

In the Premier Division, Heworth gained maximum points with a nine-wicket win over Malton & Old Malton. Malton batted first and scored a decent 196-8, thanks to N Johnson making 49, Darren Wyrill 40 and B Warren 34. R Bowling took 3-56 for home side Heworth.

In reply, Mike Taylor let rip and scored 104 not out. He was ably supported by Dave Simpson with 55 and they demolished the Malton total to win.

A century was scored by Pickering's prolific Colin Frank, who made 102. An unbeaten stand of 172 between him and Craig Aconley, with 93, took them to another high total of 256-3.

It was a tight second innings with steady batting from Osbaldwick's A Hall with 32, T Finney with 47 and Mick Hammerton with 37 just holding out to achieve the draw. Three wickets each for H Evans, A Boyes and C Marwood meant that it was a very close affair.

Woodhouse Grange also topped the 200 mark, reaching 222-7 at Sheriff Hutton Bridge. Batting first, Mike Burdett, Nick Hadfield and S Dwyer all made good contributions towards their total, making 59, 52 and 41 respectively.

Bridge struggled in reply, but thanks to a half-century from skipper Steve Crowder, they could not be bowled out and completed their overs on 142-9. The valuable six points has lifted them off the bottom of the table.

In Division One, there was a seven-wicket haul as Duncombe Park hosted Thirsk. The home side batted first and were dismissed for 156, thanks to Barry Petty's 7-50. Over half of the home side's total was scored by two players - M Wilkie with 51 and P Kent with 69.

In reply, Thirsk were steered to victory by overseas player Simon Schwerdt with 67.

In Division Two, it was a high-scoring game at Hovingham as they played host to Crayke. The home side batted first and scored 234-7, with several players getting decent scores including J Mosey with 36, G Mosey with 42 and S Prest with 39.

Crayke, however, were firing on all cylinders in reply. They scored 106 off just 112 balls, and with a handy unbeaten 79 from P Carr, the visitors won by five wickets.

In Division Three, Heworth lost ground and dropped two places to fifth after an encounter at Malton. Jon Draper with 56, Graham Hogben with 68 and Jason Gatus with 33 combined to enable Heworth to set a target of 216-7, which, on another day might have been enough against a side that was still without a victory this season. However, a bowling figure of 3-90 from Malton's Chris Brigham should have served as a warning that the task of defending this score was not going to be an easy one.

Dave Bradshaw led the way with an unbeaten 120, with good support coming from Andy Raines with 59, to ensure that Malton recorded their first win of the 2005 campaign.

Acomb had the better of a drawn game at Stillington, when they scored 182-6. Neil Grant who made 48, Neil Hinde with 44, Andrew Ingle with 35 and James Byford with 26 all got into the action, while Wayne Linton picked up four wickets for 55.

The hosts then held out for a draw, reaching 139-8 with the assistance of Barry Milburn with 34 and Matthew Coulson with 45 as Paul Hemingway took 3-24 at the other end.

Yapham have yet to record a win this season, and their first ever league visit to Filey Road was never likely to result in a change that statistic. Folkton & Flixton made it three on the trot as they brushed aside a struggling Yapham to reinforce their position as promotion favourites.

Dick Wright, who made 30, was the only batsman for the visitors to make an impression, as eight wickets fell en route to a meagre total of 116, which Neil Elvidge with 60 and Damon Gormley with 53 then passed in exactly half the available overs, with no help being required from the rest of the team.

In Division Four, one of the leading teams, Sheriff Hutton, managed to keep up their winning ways when they travelled to Selby. Edward Taylor, who, with good support from Chris Megone with 50, helped the visitors to pass Selby's target of exactly 200 with an unbeaten 86.

This had been achieved largely thanks to the efforts of Matthew Hoyle, who made 60, and Malcolm Bowden's 72, despite a return of 4-69 from Simon Thornton. John Nurden's similar haul of 4-51, however, was not enough to prevent the division leaders from securing a five-wicket win.

On a batting track that was described by Osbaldwick as "a belter with a bit of bounce", struggling side Pickering were held to 147-9, of which Kevin Wilson's 52 was the largest individual contribution. This was largely thanks to the bowling of Stuart Hall, whose nine overs yielded five wickets for just 16 runs, while Neil Bellerby snapped up the four remaining wickets in exchange for a slightly more generous 49 runs.

On a day for all-rounders, Bellerby then scored an unbeaten 57, which was only bettered by Andy Ezzard, with 72. Meanwhile, Steve Beal did his best to emulate the meanness of the home side's attack, by conceding only 12 runs as the price for taking all three of the Osbaldwick wickets to fall.

In Division Five, Huntington's improvement continued with a second successive advantage draw, this time against fourth-placed Sheriff Hutton Bridge. Len Watson with 33, Dan Shaw with 28, Dean Walton with 45 and ex-Rowntrees player Chris Todd with 50 all shared in the spoils as Huntington reached 190-4.

Stalwart Wally Baines then took 5-33, as Bridge just managed to hold on for a share of the points, at 155-9, with Adam Fisher, who made 46, and Vic Klays, who made 28, the only two visiting batsmen to make noteworthy contributions.

In Division Six, there was not much space between the top three teams prior to this week, with only eight points separating Carlton Towers from third-placed Hovingham. However, after their match at Fishpond Road, the difference had stretched to 36 points, as Hovingham put up a poor show batting first, when they only just managed to bag a single bonus point.

For the hosts, Stephen Landers, who took 4-55, and Richard Cowling, who took 4-37, shared the bulk of the responsibility, before John McHale with 43 was one of only two Tower's batsmen to lose their wickets on the way to victory.

Fourth-placed Stillington lost ground slightly, after participating in a high-scoring draw at Sessay, where the home side set a target of 230-5, with runs coming from Mike Shuttleworth with 51, Richard Ormston with 47, Ian Lane with 49 and Ian Watson with 47 as Mike Duggleworth returned 3-65.

In reply, Stillington also earned maximum batting points, but still finished 30 runs short in spite of the best efforts of James Hartley, who only just missed out on a century, finishing unbeaten on 98, and Denis North, who scored 64. Ian Watkinson, who ended on 4-37, took all but one of the Stillington wickets to fall.

Updated: 13:29 Wednesday, June 22, 2005