In the first leg of the weekend double header, Bishop Auckland’s new professional Nimesh Vimukthi failed to lift his side as they suffered a nine-wicket loss at Richmondshire.

Although the Bishops batsmen had starts, they failed to push on, in 178 all out. Vimukthi scored 30 on his debut and opener Scott Oldfield added 34, with Matthew McKiernan returning an excellent 5-46.

The Dalesmen cruised home, thanks to the Gary Pratt, who made 80 not out and Mike Layfield, 72 not out, as they put on an unbroken stand of 134 in 179-1.

Darlington are struggling to find any early season form, well beaten at Stokesley as they failed to get enough runs and made just 89 all out.

Opener Nathan Wright top scored with 27, but Richard Chandler, taking 4-32, from 15 overs alongside Shrikant Wagh, who claimed 3-23, from 14 overs, that did the real damage.

When Stokesley batted, they lost early wickets and Darlington had a sniff at 26-2 and 52-4, before skipper Andrew Weighell hit 42 not out, to guide his side to a five-wicket win, despite Rajeewa Weerasinghe returning 3-41.

Marton are struggling to get runs on the board, as they made 124 all out, in reply to Hartlepool’s 157-8 and are still looking for their first win.

Jack Wilkinson made 32 and Doug Mulholland 33 not out for Pools with Aamer Sajjad taking 4-31 for the home side.

Sajjad also top scored with 31, but with Mulholland returning 4-19 and skipper James Lowe 3-6, the home side crumbled, losing their last five wickets for 23.

Seaton Carew lost at Middlesbrough. Batting first, they made a healthy 197-7 from their 50 overs, with professional Usman Arshad scoring 76 from 92 balls, including 11 fours. He was ably assisted by David Seymour (37) and they put on 88 for the third wicket. Steven Reeves was the pick of the bowling, returning 3-52 from his 15 overs.

Boro started well and opener James Middleton made 117no from 107 balls, including 19 fours and a six. Mark Gleeson added 35, as they reached their target within 33.1 overs.

Barnard Castle had an 83-run win at home to Marske as they amassed 244-5, with skipper James Quinn top scoring with 80.

Marske started well with openers Jozef Wing (22) and Lee Hodgson (73), putting on 68 for the first wicket. However, Alasdair Appleby with 5-28 soon had them in trouble, and they were all out for 161, with just 2.2 overs to go.

Thornaby beat the champions Great Ayton by 42 runs at Acklam Road.

The home side lost the toss and were asked to first making 178-8, with skipper Paul Allen scoring 37 and Lewis Harper 41 and a breezy 38 not out from Tharindu Rathnayake, with Michael Croft the pick of the bowling, returning 4-46.

Harper then claimed 5-30 and professional Tharindu Rathnayake chipped in with 3-27 with only opener Chris Bachelor showing any resistance with 44 runs to his name, in a total of 136 all out.