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WHILE Marske continue to head the championship, one of their former players produced a remarkable bowling performance which moved his current team away from the relegation places.

Guisborough's new director of cricket, Chris Nicholls, who is also one of their professionals, captured eight wickets for the second time in his career and it gave his team their first win in what has previously been a traumatic season.

Two crushing defeats by Richmondshire and Seaton Carew were in danger of becoming a worryingly bad trend before Nicholls followed a record 8 for 7 haul in 2013 with 8 for 28 on Saturday as Hartlepool were rolled over for just 69 runs and beaten by seven wickets.

Even the opposition's 'pro', Phil Mustard, who hammered Lancashire's bowlers into submission the previous night in Durham's T20 Blast victory, had limited answers to the guile of Nicholls who bowled half of the 24 overs, sharing the attack with Ash Armstrong, long serving Stuart Mackay and newly signed 'pro' Shani Dissanayake, who was making his home debut. The two spinners took a wicket apiece.

Marske, by contrast to Guisborough, enjoyed their fifth victory in eight games and although having played a game more are now 19 points ahead of Richmondshire, who were surprisingly held to a draw by strugglers Seaton Carew.

Once again it was the batting brilliance of Marske's Saeed Bin Nasir, who made a breathtaking 127 – his third of the season – which left opponents Norton with too much to do in chasing a total of 240-6 even though they managed to get within five overs and two balls of holding out. Mattie Thomas, who top scored with 31, put up a good fight but Charlie Helm (4-24 from eight overs) and Jonathan Pickard (4-24 from 13.4) both contributed massively to the Seasiders' 120 run win.

Nasir, who scored at exactly a run-a-ball, hit 15 fours and three sixes and shared in a number of vital partnerships, the best being with Tom Urwin, who made 45 from 70 balls. His stand with Nasir, who is now the league's top runmaker, was worth 125 runs.

Middlesbrough enjoyed their second successive runaway win by bowling out Darlington for just 57 runs, which was one run less than their previous opponents Billingham. The Quakers were devastated within 23 overs by Steven Reeves (6-37) and James Lowe (3-13) after Boro's batters had posted a modest 141. Tops for Boro was Sam Gaudie who made 72 with nine fours from 96 balls, even though Tom Sowerby (4-28) and Connor Whitelock (4-32) pulled out the stops for Darlington.

Normanby Hall showed a new brand of fighting spirit to gain their first win, a surprise five wicket success over Stokesley, who went down for a second successive week. They chased the home side's 50-over challenge of 180-6 and with Chris Veasey (41 not out) and Martin Rose (30 not out) sharing an unbroken stand worth 70 runs they got over the winning line with three overs and three balls to spare.

Earlier Tom Kendrew, the son of a long serving club player, looked like being man-of-the-match when he made 70, his first team best, out of Stokesley's 180-6. He and Doug Mulholland (59 not out) put on 120 for the fifth wicket after their side got into deep trouble following the loss of their top four for just 49 runs.

Normanby remain bottom, but another defeat for Billingham Synthonia has left them looking quite vulnerable. They were beaten for the fifth time in seven games by Barnard Castle, who were back to their impressive best following their first defeat of the season in the previous game.

The Teessiders' attack was hammered for 225 runs which brought a declaration with seven wickets down with Karl Turner the biggest contributor. He made 89 from 104 balls with 58 in boundaries. Their visitors lost half their batting strength for just 48 runs and were all out for a paltry 96 with James Finch (3-11) and Josh Bousfield (3-34) heading the wicket taking.

Richmond might have been surprised in being held to a draw by Seaton Carew, but they still picked up 17 points and stay on Marske's tail. Gary Pratt (76) and Mike Layfield (57) took the champions to a solid 242-5, but despite the efforts of Toby Bulcock (3-41) and Sam Wood (2-30) Seaton held out on 164-8 thanks to an unbeaten 69 from the excellent David Braithwaite.