In-form Triangle stun leaders

Reigning champions Booth had their lead at the top of the Premier slashed from 12 points to four points with two rounds of fixtures left when Jer Lane took maximum points from a 33-run win at Thornton.

Triangle were making it six wins on the bounce but looked underdogs at tea after Booth had made 265-7 with 92 from Rob Laycock and 76 from Jon Midgley.

However, contributions from Adam Stocks (88) and Adam Fryer (64) laid the platform for Josh Graham (33 no) and Kurtis Whippey (34 no) to seal Triangle’s victory with 16 balls left.

There was a typical king-sized performance from Thornton’s Josh Hutchinson but his 101 runs and 4-85 were in vain against Jer Lane, for whom Anjid Khan had an equally fine match with 6-76 and 52.

Khan’s bowling kept Thornton relatively in check at 221 all out. Lane lost both openers for ducks but produced a superb, solid middle order effort with Simon Collins (58), Khan, former skipper Mick Hustler (56 no) and Ian Hall (42) to take the spoils.

The league executive is likely to question Oxenhope’s decision to declare at 181-7 after 40.3 overs in reply to hosts SBCI’s 239, which included 60 from Simon Wood.

The visitors’ decision gifted SBCI maximum points.

Sowerby St Peter’s won by two wickets at Copley despite Oliver Thorpe’s 112 not out for the hosts.

Aiden Green (69) got Sowerby in the hunt of a lofty target of 263 but they looked likely to fall short ay 203-8. However, Jack Leonard (36 not out) and No 10 Matthew Hoyle (43 not out) gave the visitors success in an exciting finish.

Warley crushed hosts Northowram Hedge Top by 247 runs. They rattled up a score of 322-5 with Chris Marsh (90), Matthew Whitworth (71) and Tyrone Schiller (70 not out) to the fore. Luke Duckett took 5-43 as Hedge Top mustered only 85, Matthew Smith getting 32 of them.

Queensbury’s relegation was confirmed by an eight-wicket defeat at Mytholmroyd.

They gave one of their better batting performances to total 241 all out, skipper Phil Sharples (63) showing the way.

However, Royd have been scoring runs for fun at home and cruised to victory thanks to Tom Conway (107 not out), Wajid Ali (59 not out) and Jack Earle (50).

Premier Division: *Booth 265-7 (Rob Laycock 92, Midgley 76, Worsnop 44), Triangle 268-5 (Stocks 88, Fryer 64): pts 4-11. Sowerby St Peter’s 264-8 (Green 69, Hoyle 47*, Watkins 41),*Copley 262-8 (Thorpe 112*, Dennison 71, Seraj 42): pts 11-5. Queensbury 241 (Sharples 63, Sharif 51), *Mytholmroyd 247-2 (Conway 107, Ali 59, J Earle 50): pts 3-12. Warley 332-5 (Marsh 90, Whitworth 71, Schiller 70*, Bottomley 41), *Northowram HT 85 (Duckett 5-43): pts 12-1. *SBCI 239-7 (S Wood 60 T Wood 43), Oxenhope 181-8 dec (Hopkinson 74): pts 12-5. Jer Lane 254-8 (Collins 58, Hustler 56*, Khan 52, Hutchinson 4-85), *Thornton 221 (Hutchinson 101, Khan 7-76): pts 12-5.