SUPERB bowling by Daniel Scott helped Oxenhope cement their position at the top of the Halifax League First Division.

The hosts had made 221 at home to Sowerby St Peter’s, with Joel Fothergill (70) the main contributor, but at 44-1 after tea St Peter’s looked on course.

Then Scott took 7-32 to help restrict the visitors to 173, despite some tail-wagging, and Oxenhope went 16 points clear.

Second-placed Blackley were given a surprisingly stiff test at relegation-threatened Shelf Northowram Hedge Top, as the home team scored a challenging 183-9 in their 45 overs, with Dominic Prentice (46) and Luke Cole (43) leading the way.

That score proved to be be eight runs too many as the visitors could only manage 175-9, with only No.10 Lewis Holt (31no) making it into the thirties, four Hedge Top bowlers sharing the wickets.

Bottom-of-the-table Queensbury had another nightmare start to their innings in reply at Low Moor Holy Trinity.

Following a very respectable bowling performance, in which Gareth Walker took 6-50, they restricted Trinity to 131 but then proceeded to lose their first eight wickets for a mere 29.

However, with the Trinity score revised to 116, due to a rain break, the rescue act came in the form of Waqas Shahid (45) and Adam Sloane (23).

Alas the brave response from Shahid ended as he was last out with 96 runs on the scoreboard, 20 runs short, much to the relief of Trinity, who moved to within nine points of Blackley.

Shakeel Mahmood (68) and Muhammad Asif (44) were the mainstays of a Greetland innings of 188 in their home encounter with Clayton, whose Paul Gelder took 4-44.

Mahmood then added to his all-round day with 4-22 as Clayton’s top four batters only scored a cumulative nine runs, from which they never recovered and were 115 all out.

In the Premier Division, Dan Plummell (94), for home team Great Horton Park Chapel, was a nineties victim as his team chased Luddendenfoot’s 260.

After Plummell’s departure, Horton’s innings faded to 199.

Former Yorkshire player Gary Fellows’ century held the Illingworth St Mary’s innings of 219 together, as he scored 117 in a 138-minute knock at Thornton.

Bradley Weatherhead (5-53) and Greg Soames (4-45) were the bowlers on top of the rest of the batting.

Despite a reduced St Mary’s score to 202, due to a short shower, Thornton fell 66 runs short, and thus fell 11 points behind second-placed St Mary’s as they were bowled out for 136.

In the Second Division, Upper Hopton came crashing down to earth after their previous week’s exploits, or at least their batters did.

At Jackroyd Lane, they gave themselves every chance of victory by bowling out Bradley & Colnebridge for only 126, with only one batter topping 20 as Charlie Gallagher took 4-50.

If Hopton’s batters thought the target was easy, it certainly proved otherwise as the scoreboard soon showed 20-5.

A valiant effort from Jack Stephenson (42) to rectify the problem came too late and, after he was out at 72-6, the innings closed at 102.

Mount, opting to bat, had a resounding home win by 163 runs against Outlane. Ismail Mayat (82), Mahmad Kayat (45) and Mahmadbhai Makda (43) top-scored in a total of 269-9.

The visitors’ reply only just passed 100 runs as four bowlers shared the wickets.

Leymoor’s Glen Barnard (104) hit his maiden century on the visit to Cullingworth as the visitors posted an excellent score of 255-5 in which Clayton Phillips hit a fine 78 not out.

Both will have been more than disappointed to finish on the losing team as Cullingworth responded with 257-6 in the 37th over.

Scott Pearson (73), Elliot Robinson (55), James Bloodworth (45) and Billal Khalid (44) taking up the challenge to secure a fine four-wicket victory for the hosts.