Darlington and Richmondshire played out a brilliant game, which could have went either way, but ended in a very close draw.

Richmondshire batted first and although they had a fairly positive start, putting on 48 for the first wicket, they slumped to 69-5, following a brilliant bowling spell of 4-44 from Liam Coates.

The tail waggled a little and Craig Marshall (22no) and Robert West (21no), put on 40 for the ninth wicket, to get them to 156-9.

When Darlington batted, they were steady to start with Paul Freary had 36 runs to his name, they looked likely they would win, but lost wickets regularly. That was down to great bowling from Craig Marshall, with 3-34, and two wickets apiece for Alston Bobb and Sam Winter. The game could have gone either way going into the final overs, but Darlington came up just two runs short of victory, finishing on 155-9.

Barnard Castle are top of the league, with two maximum point wins, from their first two games.

They travelled to Marske and were comfortable winners by 104 runs. However, they were in trouble at 85-6, thanks to a splendid spell of bowling from Lewis Harper who took 5-57, including a hat-trick (Karl Turner, Greg Upton and James Quinn).

Josh Bousfield (51) and Phil Merryweather (40), put on 60 for the seventh wicket, to get them up to 226 all out.

Karl Turner then went to work with his bowling and returned 5-32, following Robert Dixon’s taking 3-48, when he made early inroads to the Marske batting including the vital wicket of professional Saeed Bin Nasir, when he had him trapped in front. Marske’s 122 was never going to threaten the reigning champions.

Stokesley have also won their first two games, this time with a four-wicket win at home to Guisborough.

They put the Priorymen into bat and opener Martin Hood made 49 and Shanuka Dissanayake hit 69, putting on 89 for the third wicket, in a total of 179-9, with Andrew Weighell taking 3-73 and impressive young spinner Harry Harding took 3-40.

Despite Stuart MacKay’s 4-36, Stokesley’s batting remained consistent and Andrew Weighell hit 39, Jonny Weighell 45 and James Weighell 47 and professional Aubrey Swanepoel hit 31, to reach their target of 180-6, off 46.1 overs.

Marton had a ten-wicket win at Norton, after they skittled the home side out for just 61, off 30.1 overs, with spinners Faizan Ahmed taking 3-6 and Muhammed Zahid taking a brilliant 5-12 off just 7.1 overs.

Marton knocked off the runs in just eight overs, for the loss of no wickets, with Jonathan Spillane hitting six fours and a six, in his 39 not out, from just 28 balls.

Great Ayton had a comfortable home win over Hartlepool by 127 runs. They piled up 225-7, with Pitigala Jeewantha making 64, David Grainge 39, Chris Batchelor 33 and Chris Allinson 35, with Dale Metcalfe the pick of the bowlers taking 4-83.

In reply, Hartlepool struggled and made just 99, Doug Mulholland top scoring with 22 not out. Pitigala Jeewantha was the pick of the bowling, returning 4-23, with pace bowler Joe Marsay chipping in with 2-36.

Middlesbrough also had a big margin win, with a 90 run victory over Seaton Carew at Green Lane. Having won the toss, they decided to have a bat and made 207 all out, with some good batting through the middle order. David Bruton made 41, Matthew Bell 37 and Jack Whittle 36. David Storey took 4-63 and Usman Arshad 3-38 in the bowling department.

Seaton Carew made just 117 all out with David Braithwaite top scoring with 34, with Steven Reeves taking a brilliant 6-29 off 13.1 overs, to seal the win.