Readers Durham County League: Esh Winning conceded their unbeaten record to give the chasing clubs a glimmer of hope for the championship.
Third-top Tudhoe gained Esh's scalp by the narrow margin of 12 runs although the leaders still managed to take eight points out of the game.
Simon Davies (55) and Ross Hodgson with 36 gave the Tudhoe innings a good start but the momentum was not maintained as Rizwan Quereshi and Shafiq Ahmed joined the attack and shared nine wickets at little cost.
The target of 165 appeared to be within the reach of Esh but Teneto Willett produced a match-winning performance with the ball taking five for 38 and the home side were back in the pavilion for only 152, which included a half century by John Carmedy.
Willington remain second after defeating Hylton by a healthy 50 runs margin. Karl Brown (37) and Gary Cummings (40) gave the innings a sound platform and Chris Slattery ended unbeaten on 41 as a total of 204-4 was reached.
Lee Jackson captured all four wickets and later scored 47 but Hylton never seriously threatened as Slattery (3-48) and Lee Tinkler (4-25) dominated.
Chris Emmaneul produced a superb man of the match performance for Etherley, who defeated Shildon by nine wickets.
His five wickets for 15 runs had the home side all out for just 114 but he wasn't finished and went on to smack an unbeaten 78 when Etherley hurried to 117 for one in reply.
Meek was another batsman in form. The Kimblesworth captain hit a century which, together with a half century from Nigel Darling, propelled the total to 270-9.
Simon Gray, John Lee and Paul Daughtery all made useful scores but Langley Park were over 100 runs short at the conclusion of their 45 overs.
Billy Teesdale was another player to make three figures when he took exactly 100 off the Brandon attack as Evenwood totalled 220-6. In contrast the visitors were all out for just 62 in only 13.1 overs when Teesdale returned 4-26 and John Maughan 6-24.
Crook Town made a useful 163 for eight with runs down the order from Stephen Ball, Paul Brown and Michael Fawcett but Ushaw Moor took the points by a margin of eight wickets. Travis Dowlin (39) and Michael Thorpe (45) laid the foundations and victory was completed by Craig Usher with a half century and by Stephen Milburn.
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