CLAYTON, hit by departures before the start of the season, have joined Outlane in being relegated from the Foster's Halifax League Roy Smith First Division.

Visitors Oxenhope shuffled their batting and bowling order but still managed to defeat Clayton by two wickets.

Clayton failed to establish any real platform against the visitors' nine bowlers and could only make 185, despite Joe Clough scoring 60, Adnan Shafique 39 and Joe Brown 31 as Spencer Mawer took three wickets and fellow junior Lewis Hopkinson two.

Graham Ellis (47) and Duncan Tetley (52) added 83 for Oxenhope's second wicket to make it 108-2 but they collapsed to 148-6 before triumphing off the last ball of the 40th over.

SBCI had a 26-run home win over Low Moor to ensure they held off the challenge of Queensbury, both teams having already been assured of promotion.

Church Institute, seven points ahead of Queensbury before the start of play, knew it was all over at tea time when they had maximum batting points in the bag and news filtered through that Queensbury had failed to bowl out Outlane.

Premier Division champions Jer Lane won by 18 points last season and have extended that to 24 this time, finishing off with a 17-run success at Thornton, where Simon Collins made 131 not out.

Denholme Clough won by eight runs in a high-scoring thriller at ten-man Shelf after making 256 and restricting the hosts to 248.

Imran Aslam (55) and Zhaid Yousaf (25) put on 84 for Denholme Clough's first wicket, and there were also contributions from

Mohammed Jamil (32), Mohammed Asif (25no), Adil Hanif (25) and Sultan Mahmood (22).

Stones have snatched the runners-up spot from Wibsey Park Chapel in the Terry Wynne Second Division.

Wibsey had a three-point advantage over the Ripponden side heading into the final matches, but Wibsey collected only two points after being bowled out for 121 at home by runaway champions Bridgeholme, and Stones picked up nine points from a seven-wicket success against Greetland.