HOLDERS Thornton are out of the Parish Cup.

The Halifax League Premier Division side were beaten at Warley by six wickets in their quarter-final.

The visitors won the toss and batted, but Warley struck early as Greg Soames was dismissed from the second ball he received.

Opener Thomas Harrison was progressing well and had scored 72 of the 97 on the board when he was bowled by Zeeshan Iqbal (2-25).

Perhaps the key to the whole tie came in the next few minutes when Iqbal claimed the wicket of the prolific Josh Hutchinson – out fourth ball for a rare duck.

Nikki Hutchinson (29) and Ross Parr (29) struggled to get going and then the middle order and most of the tail collapsed, leaving them on 157-9.

However, a last-wicket stand of 49 between Bradley Weatherhead (29) and Ross Soames (19no) advanced the score to 206 as five Warley bowlers claimed wickets, with Liam Keywood taking 3-57.

Despite that last stand, one suspects that Warley would have been pleased at the tea interval.

They were certainly pleased 38 overs later as they registered a winning 209-4.

A fine knock of 62 from Chris Marsh was supplemented by a superb unbeaten fifth-wicket partnership between Ben Atkinson (81no) and Connor Mitchell (27no).

Player of the match Atkinson’s runs came in only 59 balls, leaving Warley dreaming of a repeat of their last Parish Cup success in 2018.

Illingworth St Mary’s had by far the easiest passage to the semi-finals, requiring less than 37 overs to knock out Great Horton Park Chapel, who chose to bat.

This was perhaps a mistake as, with the exception of Jonny Phillips (39) and Marshall Grieve (23), no other batter turned up, with six recording ducks in their 86 as Ben Robertshaw (4-7) led the rout.

It was all over 47 balls later as Stephen Cook (57no) and Gary Fellows (31no) took the reply to a winning 90-0.

The tie between Mytholmroyd and Booth at Moderna Way was a much tighter affair, with the home team winning by 18 runs.

Batting first, the Royd posted a challenging 249-8, headed by a superb 122 from Jack Earle, his highest score, with middle-order assistance from Taufeeq Ahmed (36) and Luke Sutcliffe (31).

Booth’s reply was in trouble at 99-5 but skipper Richard Laycock was still there and, with some assistance, took the score to 222-8.

But Earle (3-34) claimed the wicket of Laycock for 91 and the last wicket could only manage nine runs, leaving Booth 231 all out.

The fourth place in the semi-finals was claimed by Luddendenfoot, but only after an excellent batting performance from Second Division Old Town.

The Foot inserted their guests and, one suspects, did not envisage a 45-over score of 233-8 to chase.

There was a steady stream of good scores from Town, unfazed by top-flight bowlers, with Nazakat Ali (59), Sagheer Shaheen (45) and Yasir Ali (30) top-scoring.

Unfortunately for Town, their bowling did not match their batting and the Foot had no difficulty reaching 239-2 as Dean Hans (91) and Isaac Baldwin (91no) timed the reply to perfection with two overs to spare.