SWALWELL gained swift revenge for their league cup final defeat at the hands of Shotley Bridge when they toppled the league leaders by an emphatic 96 runs to re-ignite their own hopes of making it eight successive championships.

Lloyd Anderson put Swalwell in charge, cracking 15 fours and a six on his way to exactly 100 scored from 132 balls.

This innings powered the champions to a total of 214- 6 in their 50 overs, and then Guy Saxton and Stephen Smith got to work to close the Bridge down for 118.

Smith claimed 4-28 from his 12 overs, while Saxton was even more incisive as he bagged a return of five wickets for 30 runs from a ten-over burst.

Only Dan Rees, with 43 from 66 balls, showed any real resistance as the innings came to an end half way through the 38th over to move Swalwell ominously into the leading group of teams for the first time this summer.

The Bridge defeat gave Tynedale the chance to return to the top of the table, and they grasped it with both hands in a 151-run trouncing of depleted Alnmouth.

The Tynedale result was almost a foregone conclusion with their opponents struggling for numbers with nine players attending Tom Vickers’ stag weekend.

The home side rattled up 256-8 in their 50 overs, Johnny Meadows hitting 12 boundaries in his 72-ball 74, and skipper Tom Cant making 59 at better than a run-a-ball.

And it was Cant who undid the Alnmouth run chase with a 10 over spell of 4-19 as the visitors crumbled to 105 all out.

With Tynedale now 10 points ahead of the Bridge, and Swalwell just a further nine back in fourth, Ashington are also in the hunt after they consolidated their third place with a dominant nine wicket win over Leadgate.

Callum Storey was once again amongst the wickets for the Colliers, bagging 4-26 as the struggling visitors slid to 124 all out in 40.5 overs.

Anirudh Singh then quickly put the game to bed, cracking 14 fours and 1 six on his way to an unbeaten 80 scored from 66 balls as Ashington had the game won inside 23 overs.

Annfield Plain look to be out of contention after their third defeat of the summer left them 32 points adrift of the top spot.

The latest reverse was devastatingly quick, the home game with Burnopfield lasting a total of just 42 overs as the Plain were bundled out for a paltry 85, Mark Nunn their destroyer with a devastating 12 over spell in which he bagged 7-43.

Neil Killeen (3-34 from nine overs) then did his best to get Annfield back in the game, but it was a lost cause as the visitors eased to a five wicket win.

Two great run chases were the feature of the other topflight games, Ryton knocking off a daunting target of 250-4 at Consett courtesy of a sensational unbeaten innings of 130 from Roald Badenhorst, and Ponteland racing past Lanchester’s 219-9 with four overs and eight wickets to spare as skipper Wayne Ritzema turned on the style with 14 boundaries in an unbeaten 117.