On a day when six centuries were scored in the Premier Division, two featured at Grangefield where Stockton successfully chased down a target of 210 set by Whitburn.

The Teessiders sprang a surprise after suggesting that Jamie Harrison, who rejoined the club, would not be making his second debut until later in the summer.

The Durham paceman was in immediate and impressive action as he claimed three early wickets, and it was then down to Michael Turns to hold the Whitburn innings together in a 149-ball knock in which he scored an unbeaten 103.

Turns’ efforts enabled his team to scramble up to a 64-over score of 210-8, but that looked like being more than enough when Stockton slipped to 21-3. Matthew Brown (44) then joined Rammi Singh at the crease and the pair combined to put on a match-turning 119 for the fourth wicket, Singh seeing the job through with 104 not out from 119 balls as the home team won by three wickets with more than ten overs to spare.

The victory enabled Stockton to leapfrog their beaten opponents.

At the top Chester-le-Street showed the first real signs of fallibility in a high scoring encounter at Denton Bank where they were eventually pleased to hang on to a draw after looking vulnerable against Benwell Hill.

At 77-6 they looked on the road to defeat, but an aggressive counter attack by number eight bat Mark Turner, who hit 11 fours and three sixes as he smashed an unbeaten 119 from 96 balls, turned the tide to such an extent that the Cestrians declared after 58 overs with 275-8 on the board. Half centuries from Phil Nicholson and Zohaib Khan then put Hill back in charge, firstly on 117-1, and then on 194-3, but with Graeme Cessford grabbing four wickets the chase ran out of steam on 251-7.

With the leaders dropping points, South North took the chance to reduce the deficit to 22 as they defeated Blaydon by 48 runs, but the biggest movers on the day were Newcastle, who had the league’s top batsman, Jacques du Toit (108 not out), to thank for successfully chasing down a Hetton Lyons target of 236, and South Shields, whose nine-wicket battering of bottom club Gateshead Fell owed much to Aussie Tim David who hit 25 boundaries in an undefeated 149.

That defeat left Fell anchored to the foot of the table, but the First Division race turned in Brandon’s favour when a maximum points victory at South Hetton enabled them to increase their lead at the top to 29 points.

Another century from Ryan Nicholson, 15 fours and a six in his unbeaten 123, underpinned Brandon’s 47-over 244-4, and Hetton crumbled after a reasonable start and were bowled out for 139 in 30.4 overs as Jamie Robinson bagged four cheap wickets.

Defeat at Boldon saw Burnmoor drop from second to fifth. Washington had five wickets to spare in their home game against Tudhoe, victory taking them into second place, while in-form Eppleton overpowered Seaham Harbour by 68 runs as Kamran Shah (91 and 3-31) headlined.