Tense tussle for Pickering (From Gazette & Herald)

Tense tussle for Pickering

Hunters the Estate Agents York & District Senior League:

In the Premier Division, there was a tense tussle at Woodhouse Grange where Pickering batted first and, with contributions from C Nicholls, P Witty, C Aconley, M Aconley and C Marwood, made 186-9. Tight bowling from Tony Evans, who took 6-52, and Charles Marwood, who took 3-41, reduced the home side to 95-9. The last wicket pair of A Bolton and Richard Burdett held out for 14 overs before finally succumbing with the total on 140.

Acomb moved up to third spot above Beverley thanks to gaining the best of a draw at Malton & Old Malton. Acomb batted first and reached 184-6. Richard Sykes scored 64 and M Williams was unbeaten on 45. J Oldfield took the bowling honours with 3-41.

In reply, Darren Wyrill, with 30, and Greg Johnson, with 32, batted steadily and, despite a spell of 3-49 from David Sykes, held on for the draw at 150-9.

At Sessay, visitors Sheriff Hutton Bridge batted first and a century stand from Paul Oldfield, who scored 66, and Ian Clishe, who scored 59, set them well on their way. Able support from Peter Crowder, with 53, and Nick Scaling took them onto 253-7, despite a useful bowling spell of 3-11 from Richard Till.

On a good batting day, Sessay openers were barely out-done as they scored 90 before losing a wicket, which put them on the way to a good draw, finishing on 231-8. Their batting highlights were N Harrison with 32, M Till with 54, J Flintoff with 29, and D Johnson with 42.

In Division One, Pocklington had a convincing victory to move them up the table. Batting first, they could only reach 127, with N Jackson scoring 47 and tight bowling from Adam Rainer, who took 3-43. However, it was a match for bowlers and Duncombe Park could only manage 52 in reply, with P Powell taking three of the wickets.

In Division Two, an unbeaten century for bottom-placed Hovingham's Alastair Thorpe and 77 from S Prest took their side to 244-4 at Bridlington. However, on a good batting wicket, Bridlington were set well on their way thanks to 32 from R Lount, 48 from S Garten, 82 from Hafiz Khalid and 41 from S Edmundson, who finished off the job reaching 245-3 for a seven-wicket victory.

Crayke batted first as they played host to Ripon and scored and miserly 99. P Carr with 32 and J Light with 33 were the only batsmen of note as Van Dyk put in another good bowling display of 4-19.

In reply, Ripon had no problems in gaining maximum points as C Waters, with 48, and P Reynolds, with 26, led them to an eight-wicket victory.

The encounter between Acomb and Malton in Division Three featured the highest aggregate score and highest innings total of the day, as Dave Bradshaw and Andrew Raines participated in a massive opening partnership of 270. This enabled their side to declare on 306-1 after 41 overs once Bradshaw had reached the 150 milestone. Raines had earlier departed for 120.

Acomb then made steady progress with the bat but without ever looking like reaching their target, as a good team effort from Paul Hemingway and Neil Hinde, who both took 48, John Webster with 36 and Andy Jacques with 34, did at least enable them to achieve maximum batting bonus points.

Division leaders, Folkton & Flixton, also passed the 200 mark at Easingwold, where Neil Elvidge with 56 maintained his position as his side's leading run-maker with his fourth half-century of the season.

Useful runs were added by James Brown with 38, Richard Baker with 28 and John Boddy with 25, while the most successful member of the home side's bowling attack was Andrew Metcalfe, who took 3-40.

Lee Elvidge and Ken Thornton then responded with three wickets apiece. However, Tom Langstaff, who was 55 not out, helped his side to hang on and deny Folkton the full points, as they closed on a respectable 165-7, with Greg Saunders and Paul Lyttle making 38 and 33 respectively.

Another high-scoring draw took place at Harrogate, where John Ormesher with 77, Phil Critchley with 67 and Charles Crawley with 43 provided the bulk of the runs in the host's total of 226-5, with three wickets falling to Richard Horner.

For the visitors, Mark Whitwell made 66 and Tim Jarvis was 37 not out, as Stillington made it comfortably past the three-quarter mark to gain the extra draw points, finishing on 178, also for the loss of five wickets.

Division Four leaders, Sheriff Hutton, pulled slightly further away from the pack, when they were the only team in the top five to secure maximum points. Osbaldwick's Andrew Dongworth with 34 was the only one to show any real fight in the face of the bowling of Simon Thornton, who took 6-57, as Edward Taylor assisted in the dismissal of five victims, including two stumpings.

Chris Megone, with 41, and Joel Wilford, with 40, helped the leaders to make short work of reaching their target of 121, which they did in 25 overs for the loss of three wickets.

An exciting finish at Mill Lane saw Pickering drawing level with Woodhouse Grange, for a perfect tie at 179-8 each, as they scored a single off the last ball of the game.

Stuart Craven with 36, Richard Sherwood with 25 and Russ Bilton with 38 had all made runs for Grange, while Steve Beal collected 4-51, before Sam Thackray, with 65, and Philip Aconley, with 26, went in search of what would have been only the second win of the season for Pickering.

However, the two runs needed for victory off the last ball eluded them, and they had to settle for 23 points instead. Andrew Anderson, who took 4-43, was the best of the Woodhouse bowlers.

Unless they experience a dramatic change in fortunes, Tadcaster Magnet look set for a quick return to Division Five after being defeated by Huby.

Despite an unbeaten 38 from Bobby Collins, and 33 from Peter McNamara, Magnet were only able to post an inadequate target of 125-7, after a delayed start.

Paul Moore, with 38, then added to his earlier bowling success of 3-64 when he shared an unbeaten partnership of 69 with Darren Howell, who took 68, as Huby achieved their objective with seven wickets in hand.

In Division Five, Sheriff Hutton Bridge set a target of 171 all out. Alistair Sinclair, with 44, and Dave Ellis, with 39, were the main contributors, as Thirsk's Dan Magee bagged six wickets for just 20.

Magee was in the action again during the Thirsk innings, in which Jim McKendry, Anthony Elders and Ben Christon just failed to do enough for victory, falling four runs short of a winning score with two wickets remaining. For the home side, Dave Ellis completed an all-round performance by taking 3-21.

In Division Six, Sessay's first innings score of 146-7 at Hovingham was not good enough to prevent the third-placed side from logging their fifth win of the 2005 campaign.

The division's leading wicket-taker, Mike Hemingway, picked up another four, as Darren Atkinson's innings of 41 was the only one of any note for Sessay. Atkinson shared the game's highest individual score of 41 with Neil Thompson for Hovingham, with Peter Stark one behind on 40. Derek Milburn, with 27, also made runs for the home side, while Sessay's James Easton did his best by taking 4-31.

There were two half-centuries in Cawood's total of 171-5 - an exact 50 for 15-year-old James Pearson, and an undeated 51 for Dave Bath. Stillington just held on for the draw with one wicket remaining, as John Gibson bowled throughout to collect 5-70.

Peter Dalton, with 34, and Denis North, with 31, were the main contributors to the Stillington total of 147.

Updated: 14:16 Wednesday, June 29, 2005