Hylton are all but relegated after loss

Seaham Park, still looking over their shoulders a little, had a positive winning draw, away at Esh Winning.

Bill Quay, who remain second bottom, earned themselves a valuable eight points on their travels to runaway leaders Burnopfield.

With fellow strugglers losing all around them, it was crucial timing to get a draw at the leaders, when probably no-one expected them too.

The home side lost the toss and were put into bat, scoring a massive 245-4 declared.

Contributions with the bat were from Matty Young (38), skipper Gareth Breese (70) and Callum Thorp (67), with Breese and Thorpe putting on 140 for the third wicket.

In reply, Quay started positively, putting on 53 for the first wicket, John Tudor for 30, and the 55 for the third wicket with Josh Eaton adding 61, including 11 fours.

But eventually, the bowlers got on top and they had to settle with 169-7.

Burnopfield’s title rivals are contributing to them running away with the title.

They have now stretched their lead to a massive 76 points after their nearest rivals Philadelphia, went down at Horden, who are now third, just two points behind second placed Phili.

Easington in fourth, had a comfortable home win over Crook by 99 runs, with Sujit Nayak claiming his second century of the season with 104 and with openers Ryan Higgins scoring 68 and Josh Ward 36 in an opening partnership of 97, laying the foundations for an impressive 249-7.

Crook never got near the total and were all out for a disappointing 150, with only skipper Andrew Pratt resisting with 37 not out.

Gary Ward (3-33) and Dane Wilson (3-16) were the destroyers in the bowling department.

Dawdon move to fifth, after a five wicket win at relegation threatened Castle Eden.

Eden batted first, and scored a respectable 157, with Ryan Ball top scoring with 44, but Liam Cowell with 5-40, kept the score down.

In reply, opener Steven Gale with 86 not out, was the match winner in the game.

In Division Two, leaders Littletown stayed top, after a convincing 90 run home win over Boldon CA.

Openers S Harris with 44 and Matt Dench with 47, plus Niall Heron with 30, gave the home side a solid platform to make 203-8 declared and then Shashikant Kadam with 3-25, helped them bowl out the visitors for 114.

Whiteleas had a nine wicket win at Evenwood, thanks to Abdul Ameer (5-27) and Chris Nichol (5-18) and Ryhope were healthy winners at home to Langley Park by 139 runs, with a century from A Headley (126) and Sagar Udeshi (42).

Peterlee with a home win of 107 runs against Houghton, keep in touch. Andrew Shellie with 49 and Jack Spalding with 39, helped them to 187-9 and then bowled Houghton out for 80, with Shellie in the wickets, with 4-31 and M Thorpe got 3-11.

In the other match at the bottom, there was a heavy defeat for Silksworth at home to Marsden, who made 200-4, with Christopher Mann hitting a brilliant century of 126 not out and Jacques Porter chipped in with 31.

Paul Snaith (4-26) and Steven Neilson (3-16) then proceeded to take out the home side’s batting, with them making only 67.