SHOULD visitors Great Horton PC win promotion from Division One of the Halifax League, it may be appropriate to add an extra medal for Bridgeholme's groundsman Keith Hudson.

Despite Bridgeholme's ground being flooded the previous Monday, he somehow prepared a track that produced 466 runs, as the rest of the league’s teams struggled.

Horton rattled up 322-7 as skipper Adam Beesley produced an excellent 133, amply assisted by Dominic Anderson’s 67.

Full credit must also go to Sajjad Mahmood who kept going under the onslaught to record 5-81.

However that performance was trumped by Horton’s Matthew Jordan with a superb 9-69, his first victim being the aforementioned groundsman!

Even then the plaudits were unfinished as the home team’s skipper, Mohammed Basharat, crashed 76 not out to take his team’s score from 20-5 to 144 all out.

Horton’s win puts them four points behind Blackley as a tea-time downpour at Upper Hopton prevented the leaders from replying to the home team’s 143 all out.

Clayton are just three points adrift but blew their chance to go top at Mount. However, they avoided defeat thanks to rain with the home team only requiring a further 26 runs with seven wickets remaining from 8.2 overs to reach a revised target of 122, after the visitors had scored 152 all out.

Sam Wilson (51) for Clayton and Ismail Mayat (4-45) were the noticeable performance before the rain came.

Only four points now separate the top four so, without a doubt, this division will go the last week.

In the Premier Division, Oxenhope were one of only two teams to top 200 runs in the whole of the league, scoring 226-6 against Sowerby St Peter’s.

Every one of the eight home batsmen who reached the crease managed double-figures, led by Ben Howell’s 52. The Sowerby reply of 188-8 came largely thanks to Aiden Green (74) and Ben Watkins (47).

At SBCI, the home team were dismissed for 104 against Thornton, with Ross Parr almost unplayable in his 14 overs that yielded 6-19.

Josh Hutchinson must have checked the weather forecast at the interval as, with the visitors at 17-2, his entrance brought a quickfire 80 that included five sixes to see the visitors home and dry at 106-3.

In the Second Division, Old Town’s all-round team batting record continued as once again no batsman scored 30 runs, yet the combined effort produced a excellent 184-9 at Low Moor HT.

The fine performance did not end there, however, as they put a dent into the hosts’ promotion hopes by proceeding to bowl them out for 123, with Jahangir Khan (5-32) the main destroyer. While the Town are still 23 points behind the leaders, are some Trinity nerves surfacing?

Second placed Luddendenfoot took full advantage of Trinity’s trip-up and moved to within five points of the leaders with a five-wicket victory at Cullingworth.

The home team managed only 99 all out, as Ryan Allen recorded a very tight stint of 14-9-19-5. Although the Foot also did not find batting easy, losing five wickets for 46 runs at one stage, it achieved the target in less than 19 overs.

At Stones, visitors Queensbury scored 162-7 in 45 overs with Bradley Gerrard-Harrison (40) the chief contributor. The Stones response was held together by William Tickett (58) but he lacked help as Gareth Walker (6-38) saw to it that Stones folded at 117 all out.