Skipton slipped seven points off the bottom of Division B of the Airedale & Wharfedale League when they were beaten by closest rivals Knaresborough at home on Saturday.

Their visitors were only one place above Skipton at the start of proceedings, but their six-wicket win lifted them nicely up the table and tightened the screw on the Sandylands men.

Not for the first time this season, Skipton's batting lacked depth. They had another solid innings from Andrew Facey, who finished with 69 of his side's 136 total, but with Mike Baxandall (5-30) in good form, Skipton could not find another batsmen who was able to stay at the crease for any length of time and collapsed from 96-1 to their modest total.

In reply, Knaresborough reached their target without undue alarms.

The derby at Steeton saw the home side extracting some revenge for their reverse at Silsden on the opening day of the season when they had much the better of a drawn game.

At 24-3, the picture hardly looked rosy for Steeton, but some good work in the middle order from skipper Jon Akrigg (46), Neil Spragg (48) and Oliver Gledhill (42no) carried the 40-over total to 183-5.

Silsden's reply never really threatened to challenge, despite a half-century from opener Andrew Waggett (51).

Neil Robinson (21) and Australian Daniel Senior (23no) also got a start, but only a spot of sustained defiance from No 11 Walker (6no) in tandem with Senior enabled Silsden to hang on for a single point at 127-9 as Messrs Best (4-44) and Hardwick (5-50) kept the visitors largely on the back foot.

Upper Wharfedale came up short in both the batting and bowling departments at Bardsey when their game was cut to 42 overs by the weather.

The visitors' success was built on the batting of Messrs Loveridge (24), Bowes (25) and Davies (51), who formed the backbone of a respectable 157-7 total.

At 60-1 in reply, the Dalesmen were moving along steadily, but wickets then began to fall at a regular rate and with only Gould (34), Whitfield (11) and Foulds (21) reaching double figures, the side collapsed to 109 all out, Warburton (5-22) doing most of the damage.