OXENHOPE batted first in their game at Copley in the ENCO Halifax League Premier Division, and the majority of their 222-8 came from three players - Will Rankin (47), Ben Howell (45) and Daniel Scott (42no) - although Alex Baker made 27 and David Robinson 29.

In Copley’s reply, however, only two players - Oliver Thorpe (58) and Will Rushton (56) - made any impression and, having been 36-4, they were all out for 170, with Joel Fothergill taking 5-31 and Lewis Hopkinson 3-29.

Thornton were 50-0 after 10 overs against visitors Shelf Northowram Hedge Top, and opener Jordan Croft went on to score 61, which included 13 fours.

He featured in a stand of 73 for the first wicket with Grant Soames (37), but there was little to shout about after that until Max Rawson made 33 not out as they slipped from 107-2 to 156-7.

They finished on 201-7, with Gurdev Singh (5-56) taking five of the first six wickets to fall.

However, it was basically game over when Hedge Top slipped to 68-6 and, despite Harry Talbot (41) adding some pride to the innings, they were all out for 148, with Bradley Weatherhead taking 4-25 and Greg Soames 3-40, Grant Soames bagging 1-13 from nine miserly overs.

In the First Division, there was a quick return home from Rastrick for table-topping Great Horton Park Chapel, but their win was a squeaky success in a low-scoring affair.

Augustinians were bowled out for a mere 38 in the 21st over, with only captain Muhammad Fiaz (13) reaching a double-digit score as Daniel Gill recorded 5-13 - amazingly the best return in his 19th season of first XI appearances for Horton - Marshall Grieve 3-16 and Adam Beesley 2-7.

The visitors looked on course for an easy victory at 32-2, but four batters were dismissed in 10 balls without addition, and it was soon 36-7.

Order was restored as Tom Holliday hit the only six of the match to give Horton a three-wicket win in the 16th over, Waqas Hussain taking 4-7.

The closest finish of the day came at the Trinity Oval, where Low Moor Holy Trinity entertained Clayton.

It would be an understatement to report that scoring was difficult, best illustrated by Trinity’s batters only reaching the boundary on seven occasions in an arduous 45 overs, which brought only 103-9, the chief tormentors being Kashif Talib (4-22) and Andrew Deegan (4-30).

The visitors also found runs hard to come by and collapsed from 61-1 to 81-7, with top scorer Connor Ambler (31) the first of six to return to the pavilion.

Thereafter the tension was calculable as the score went to 90-8 and then 100-9. Finally No 4, Joseph Brown (19), who had stayed to face 41 balls, was trapped lbw by Stuart Fenton (3-33), Clayton falling one run short of a tie at 102.

James Overend had done the bulk of the damage with figures of 10-3-17-6.

Greetland also found the going hard work at home to Upper Hopton.

Only Mobasher Hussain (44) looked anything like comfortable against the six-pronged Hopton attack, all of whom took at least a wicket as the home team struggled to 127, with four others reaching double figures.

Tom Wilson returned 3-23 and Lewis Edmond 2-22.

The visitors, with Harvey Lockwood (55no) and Thomas Wightman (44) enjoying an 86-run partnership for the second wicket, went a long way to ensuring the win at 132-2 in the 29th over.

In the Second Division, there was a very strange looking scorecard at Queensbury, where Oakworth were the visitors.

Two batters, one from each team, were responsible for over 60 per cent of the cumulative 131 runs in the match.

Queensbury batted first and, with the exception of Oliver Challis’ 40 - Will Mackay (10) was the only other player to reach double figures - they were taken apart by Tom Raby’s figures of 7-3-11-7 and only mustered 64.

In reply, it was the turn of Jake Keslinke (42no) to feature in a winning score of 67-4 in the 17th over.

Another team to fail to reach three figures were Outlane, who were dismissed for 94 by visitors Cullingworth, with only skipper Jonathan Krishnapillai (36) topping 20, and that took over two hours of concentration as four visiting bowlers shared the wickets, led by James Bloodworth (4-20) and Dave Robinson (4-25).

However, the Keighley team fell six runs short of victory at 89, despite Harrison Brierley scoring 23 as four Outlane bowlers shared the wickets.

Runs were also hard to come by at Mount, where Southowram visited.

As the Rams batted first, that difficulty was best illustrated by the usually quick-scoring Dean Crossley.

He needed 120 balls to compile 55 not out in a 45-over total of 131-8, with Yusuf Patel taking 4-16.

That innings proved vital, however, as the home team found the track just as difficult and fell seven runs short at 124, skipper Ismail Mayat top-scoring with 24 at No 8.