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MARSKE gave their championship hopes a massive boost when they beat close rivals Richmondshire, opening up a lead of 22 points and seeing the Dalesmen lose second place to Barnard Castle who, like the Seasiders, enjoyed one of their outstanding results of the season.

As Barney became only the second team to beat Great Ayton, who had gone eight matches undefeated, Marske had to overcome a batting crisis to get the better of their opponents. Richmond took their first four wickets for just 22 runs including those of top run makers, Lee Hodgson and Saeed Bin Nasir, who were out without scoring, and it was left to a threesome who have only occasionally batted due to the team's previous success, to step up to centre stage.

Chris Lince (69 from 72 balls), Joe Wing (40 from 119) and Jonathan Pickard (37 from 41 balls) produced outstanding skills to take their side to a four wicket win in reaching 177 with seven of the 50 overs to spare. Wing was the anchor around which the success was achieved having come to the wicket with the score on 12 and being involved in partnerships of 89 and 62 until he was out with just a single run needed for victory.

The Dalesmen, for whom Toby Bulcock was top scorer with 32, never got on top of the Marske bowling led by Josh Carroll (4-42 from 15 overs) and it needed a 34-run ninth wicket stand to complete their challenge. Later Rob West (3-62) and Sam Wood (2-33) formed their most effective attack.

Great Ayton's exceptional run of six wins out of their last seven played matches came to an end on their own ground against Barnard Castle, but it needed a last gasp batting effort by Tom Merryweather (27 not out) and James Finch (25 not out) to get them over the line. Finch faced 49 balls and Merryweather scored from 45 as they took their total from 118 to 163 to win by three wickets with just six balls remaining of the 50 overs.

Ayton's batting challenge of 162-8 was led by Chris Batchelor (78 from 128 balls) who shared the top stand of 79 for the fourth wicket with Whalid Ghauri (30). As with Barney, there was a late batting partnership for the villagers as Jon Grainge (24 not out) and Tom Leng put on 33 for the ninth wicket. Lewis Harper, Steve Pennock and Joe Marsay each took two wickets when Ayton took to the field. Barney's best bowlers were Simon Tennant (3-38), Finch (2-35) and Josh Bousfield (2-44) each of whom bowled the maximum 15 overs.

After winning twice over the previous weekend to launch a new era of opportunity, Seaton Carew returned to their bad old days when bowled out for just 42 runs by Billingham Synthonia, who moved above them in the lower reaches in the league with their first 25 points victory.

This extraordinary game saw Billingham lose six wickets for 51 runs, including both their opening batsmen for just two, before Faisal Hussain struck a mighty 74 from 100 balls for his side to reach 163-8. What was to follow when Seaton replied has few equals in league history with the first two wickets falling for one run, a third on five and the last five without a further run being added on 42. Home pro Alston Bobb took five wickets for just four runs – his best return of the season – with Martin Cull adding to his 1,000 wicket milestone with three more.

Norton got a major boost which took them away from the bottom six to the relative safety of mid-table by beating bottom club Normanby Hall. Mark Davies (48 and 5-31) had his best all-round day of the season as his side posted 157 and then bowled out their hapless opponents for just 72.

Francois Kroukamp (4-20) was Normanby's star performer, but sadly in vain as they have now dropped 33 points behind second bottom Seaton who are in a dog fight with Billingham and Guisborough to get away from the second relegation place.

Heavy rain led to the latter's visit to Feethams being called off after just 30 overs' batting by Darlington (101-3) in reply to their challenging total of 226-7 of which Steve Turner made an unbeaten 72.

And another drawn finish was at Stokesley against Middlesbrough where both sides totalled over 200. There were half centuries for James Beaumont and Andrew Weighell and 41 for his brother, James, enjoying a break from Durham.