WHILE the top three championship runners continue on a razor’s edge, still separated by just 11 points, the mouthwatering weekend activity was at the other end of the league table with the season’s first tied finish and a vital win for another of the clubs threatened with relegation.

Second from bottom Marton moved up a place with their first victory in nine weeks to leave Redcar in greater danger of moving down a division, while the extra points a resurgent Seaton Carew took from the tied result with Normanby Hall has given them renewed hope that they may also escape the big drop.

Seaton, although still in bottom place, have cut back their margin of safety from 51 to 19 points by taking 54 points from their last three games, including their only two victories of the entire summer.

Their brilliant run of new found form continued on Saturday in front of their own fans after they had scored 154 runs with Paul Braithwaite (39) and Sanjaya Rodrigo (24) getting excellent wicket taking support from second teamer, Jonny Scott and Danny Evans (2-36). Normanby were thwarted of victory when two of the final three wickets fell in the last over of the game, but with the scores level Seaton were happy to pick up extra points. Carl McGregor (67 and 4-42) was the Hall’s star performer, his runs coming from 77 balls with six boundaries.

Marton’s win, only their third, was at Guisborough where Luke Gettings was outstanding with both bat and ball. He took 5 for 64 in 13.5 overs as the Priory club were confined to 158 runs. He then hit a match winning half century from 100 balls with eight fours to share 66 for the sixth wicket with Dean Kirby (28) as they recovered from 61 for 5 to reach 159-8.

Redcar came close to beating Darlington after Sam Berry (5-24) and Mohammed Zahid (3-37) bowled out their visitors for 134. Paul Freary (49 from 61 balls with eight fours) and James Dobson (32) shared a stand worth 54, but they never recovered from the loss of four wickets for four runs in the middle order. Redcar were within 16 runs of victory with four wickets still intact, but their tail-end failed to wag and they finished 11 runs short.

Doug Mulholland and Liam Coates each took three wickets with Alex Simpson (2-4), on his seasonal debut, and Grant Sowerby (2-9) causing havoc once Jonny Cooper (39) and Zahid (30) had been outed.

Richmondshire retained the league’s top place with an eight wicket win over Middlesbrough which ended an unbeaten run of 12 matches by their hosts. Boro were routed for just 77 runs as Craig Marshall (5-12) and Toby Bulcock (3-32) reigned supreme at Acklam Park where Gary Pratt (51 not out) completed the victory in just 15 overs.

Barnard Castle retained second place despite having to settle for a winning draw, but they allowed Stokesley, who completed an impressive double over Norton, to trim back their lead by three points to four.

Barney (224-4) were held by Marske (125-9) whose final pairing of Dan Amos and Charlie Helm faced 25 balls successfully to deny the victory. Josh Bousfield (4-23) and Richard Borrowdale (4-29) had shared the bowling honours before Chris Lince (47 from 57 balls) dug in to save the Seasiders. Earlier Saeed Bin Nasir became first to reach 1,000 league runs. He needed just 17 to achieve the landmark but was out one run later.

Stokesley enjoyed a tenth win and it equalled their biggest as Andrew Weighell (79) and brother Jonny (56) raced to 138 runs without being parted at Norton (137-8). Andrew faced 99 balls, seven more than his partner, and between them they hit 21 boundaries. Richard Chandler was in magnificent form with the ball, grabbing seven wickets at a cost of just 48 runs from 16 overs.

Great Ayton’s remarkable rise from second bottom to fourth top, which took them to the fringe of the championship chase, came with their fourth victory in five games and their eighth overall. They beat Hartlepool by seven wickets after being set to score 164 and it was the remarkable Chris Batchelor (83) who led the run chase. He fell just short of becoming the second to top 1,000 runs on the same day.

In Division One the race for promotion remains set to go down to the wire with Billingham and Whitby still just five points apart, and Bishop Auckland, on a charge with five wins from their last six matches, breathing down their necks.