CIROC moved relentlessly on towards their third-successive Division One championship with an impressive eight-wicket victory over John Breare in the Bradford & District Evening League.

Batting first at what is becoming Ciroc’s fortress at the Karmand Centre, the visitors were indebted to Tony Henderson (33) for their par score of 100-7 off 16 overs, as experienced skipper Mushy Shah took 3-14.

After losing the early wicket of Bilal Ejaz, Mehran Ibrahim (47no) and Hamzah Iqbal (37) ensured there were no other slip-ups as they reached their target.

Buttershaw St Paul’s remain two points adrift in second as they kept up the pressure on the leaders with a 36-run success away to Raja’s at Bradford Park Avenue.

Woodlands’ Elliot Richardson top scored for St Paul’s with 53no as the visitors posted 115-5 from 16 overs, as Raja’s spin king skipper Mohammad Altaf chipped in with his usual tidy figures of 3-21.

Altaf topped scored for the home side with 34 but they fell well short of victory as they finished on 79-9, with Jack Wilson (3-8) the pick of the St Paul’s bowlers.

Crossflatts & Greenfield are joint third on 10 points, but lost ground as their game at Flatts’ Ryshworth Park was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to the ground being unfit for any play.

The final game in Division One saw bottom side Undercliffe claim their first win of the season away at Denholme.

Openers overseas Khalid Usman (41) and skipper Luke Heinemann (35no) gave the Intake Road side a great start by putting on 50 for the first wicket but the Denholme bowlers then managed to slow the scoring rate down as the visitors finished on 112-2 from their 16 overs.

Rayhan Shazad (5-19) then helped reduce Denholme to 17-5 but a late flourish from Richard Wear (28) and Callum Gerrard (24) gave the score an air of respectability as the home side were bowled out for 86.

Undercliffe’s victory still leaves them bottom, but now puts them level on five points with Denholme, Raja’s and John Breare as the battle to avoid relegation starts to take shape with just six games to go in the season.

The top three teams in Division Two all won, increasing the gap over the bottom three teams to six points, in the race for promotion and qualification for Finals Day, which only two of them can achieve.

Great Horton Park Chapel were the week’s top scorers and they remain top as they amassed 162-4 from 16 overs at Bradshaw thanks largely to Danny Wilkins (53no), Dom Anderson (40) and Simon McDermott (26).

The Halifax outfit replied with 119-3 (Kieran Rodger 37no, Josh Dougall 28, Connor Ryan 25).

The Ewart Street side are now on 13 points, two ahead of Shelf & Thornton who share joint second spot on 11 points.

Shelf returned to winning ways with a comfortable eight-wicket victory in a high-scoring affair at home against Muff Field. Zohaib Iqbal hit 54no to help the Sunnybank side to 127-7 from their 16 overs.

Shelf openers Bilal Hameed (37) and Zaheer Shah (30) put on 53 for the first wicket and with a further contribution from Amir Afsar (33no), the home side passed their target for the loss of just two wickets and with 1.3 overs to spare as they ended on 132-2.

Finally, bottom side Cross Roads & Daisy Hill are still looking for their first win of the season as they once again managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in their home game against high-flying Thornton.

Despite a decent partnership for the second wicket between Ryan Brooksbank (42) and Johandre Bernard (22), Keighley's overseas star Alex Antoine making a welcome return to Busy Lane to play Evening League taking 2-25 as he and Danny Halstead (3-12) took the pace off the ball (3-12) and restricted Thornton to just 91-7 from 16 overs.

Although Cross Roads lost two early wickets, Antoine did not disappoint with the bat and set up what looked to be an easy victory when he retired on 53 out of a total of 67-3.

However, Matty Marshall started the self-destruct process by running out skipper Ian Clayton and then throwing his own wicket away with the score on 80 with 23 balls left.

Normally 12 off 23 balls with four wickets left would be easy but unfortunately the two players in were club men who only play occasionally and fast accurate bowling outside the off stump from Scott Richardson and O Thomas saw only seven runs scored with 17 of the last 23 balls being dot balls. Both batsman's minds were scrambled in the moment that they didn't sacrifice their wickets to get better players in! Thornton must have come off the field in disbelief that they had won the game.