OVERSEAS player Adam Whatley smashed an unbeaten 123 not out as champions York got the defence of their Foss Evening Cricket League division one title off to a flying start.

Dropped before he had scored, the Australian made Heworth suffer with 13 sixes as the Clifton Park side amassed 176-4.

Tom Owen included an all-bowled hat-trick in his 3-24 for Heworth who ten recovered to post a respectable 137-7 thanks to Tom Neal’s 49 and 32 from Freddie Coughlin.

After the game Heworth questioned Whatley’s eligibility to play and the matter is being investigated by the league.

Andrew Bilton hit 65 not out from 42 balls as Woodhouse Grange brushed aside Pocklington. His innings included five maximums as Grange finished on 98-5.

Stamford Bridge made short work of overhauling Dunnington’s 101-7, Ollie Pimlott top scoring with 37.

Stockton & Hopgrove edged out Ovington in division two by three runs with Jamie Kerrison making a match-winning 48 not out. He struck four sixes and three fours as Stockton posted 106-7 Ovington looked in control at 91-3 but Stockton got the key wicket of Barry Steel (45) and some tight bowling wrapped up a narrow win.

Paul Van Dijk made an impressive 69 for Bubwith as they beat Bishopthorpe by 10 runs.

Andrew Seager was the only one of Bishopthorpe’s bowlers to take a wicket, claiming 2-49, before leading a valiant attempt to chase down the target by scoring 63 from just 46 balls. Left-armer Andy Foreman took all first three wickets to fall - all clean bowled - and ended with figures of 4-0-28-3.

Fida Hussain produced the best bowling figures ever of any Retreat player in the short form of the game with 6-8 against Thixendale in division three.

Fida, who plays his weekend cricket for Cookridge in the Dales Council, came on first change and tore through the Thixendale middle order bowling five of his six victims and taking five wickets in his first nine deliveries. Zaheer Ahmed (44 no) saw Retreat II win by five wickets.

Carl Hodgson scored an unbeaten 50 and Joel Arnold 43 as Aviva Vikings 144-3 defeated Heworth Nomads by seven wickets. Heworth made 138-6 thanks to Greg Sykes 47, Pete Fairburn 28, Pat Durkin 28 with Arnold taking 2-28 while two debutants got wickets - Mounam Ejaz finished with figures of 4-0-18-1 and Darren Lovett 4-0-17-2.

Suranga Uragaha (50) and Ben Lodge (21) put on 52 for the first wicket for Retreat I who totalled 119-5 against Westow who were then bowled out for 52. Retreat’s Adam Mosley extracted some extra bounce from the track to take 3-2 while the gentle off-spin and flight of the evergreen Tim Wills saw him finish with tidy figures of 3-8.