Pearson's 152 is a club best

The 19-year-old made 152 not out as the Centre Vale men notched a 72-run win at home to next-to-bottom Milnrow.

Opener Pearson hit 21 boundaries and faced 161 balls, passing 500 runs for the season.

Pearson’s innings yielded a second club record - he and professional Chris Schofield (88 no) added an unbroken 237 for the third wicket.

Todmorden totalled 291-2 but there was some frustration for them in the second half of the contest as Milnrow battled to 219-8 and denied them a couple of points.

Schofield took 3-61 with his spin bowling but skipper Aaron Brown’s 49 not out defied the efforts of a seven-man Tod attack.

Another opener among the runs was Walsden’s Jake Hooson at Crompton.

The left-hander, who had made 98 in the abandoned game against Littleborough the previous week, followed up with 93 as the Scott Street side retained their 12 point lead at the top with seven games left.

Hooson hit 11 fours and two sixes from 127 balls and shared stands of 51 with opening partner Josh Gale (31), 36 with skipper Nick Barker (20) and 102 with professional Umesh Karunaratne (43).

However, it was the hard-hitting of Joe Gale (41 off 19 balls) and James Rawlinson (26 off 15) which really hurt Crompton,

Walsden closed on 277-7 against opponents who had beaten them in the T20 earlier in the summer and then bowled them out for 154.

Hooson completed a great day’s work with 3-25 and fellow spinner Karunaratne took 4-49, the Sri Lankan’s victims including top scorer Denis Louis’s 38.

Lightcliffe’s afternoon at Cleckheaton got off to a bright start when Yassir Abbas dismissed in-form Yorkshire opener Tom Kohler-Cadmore for just one in the Premier Division of the Bradford League.

However, things went downhill from there for the Calderdale side, who lost by 102 runs.

Kohler-Cadmore was caught behind by Mark Gill with the score on five and Copley product Toby Thorpe (18) was out to the same Abbas-Gill combination with the score on 36.

Nick Walker (67) led a recovery to 254-8 with strong backing from Tayyab Tahir (50) and John Wood (43 no), Abbas and Suleman Khan taking three wickets each.

Lightcliffe had no answer to left-arm spinner Andrew Deegan when they replied. Deegan took 5-28 as Lightcliffe subsided from 40-0 to 152 all out with Jonathan Wilson’s 31 the top contribution.

The visitors were able to breathe a sigh of relief when news came through that the three teams below them, Scholes, Bradford & Bingley and East Bierley, had all lost.

Brighouse’s promotion hopes in Championship Two received a blow when the last pair from rivals Wakefield St Michael’s hit the winning runs at Russell Way.

The home side paid the price for a patchy batting display, in which Quadratullah Azizi (44), Deron Greaves (41) and Quaisar Hameed (40) did most of the scoring, and giving their opponents four of their overs.

Brighouse were all out for 186 before a fairly solid top-order effort from Saints was undermined by Greaves (4-35).

However, last-wicket pair Ollie Lightfoot (28no) and Tom Robinson (6no) edged the visitors to victory in the third of the bonus overs.

Josh Bennett-Kear was in devastating form as Northowram Field romped to a quick six-wicket home win to Liversedge in the same section.

Bennett-Kear bowled fast, straight and full to take 7-38 as the bottom side were dismissed for 97.

Chris Thompson, out of retirement as a stand-in for broken finger victim and fellow slow bowler Jason Smith, mopped up the other three wickets.

Dru Patel made 59 not out in reply, the last of a handful of sixes hit down the ground sealing a victory which moved the ninth-placed Rams 43 points clear of the bottom two.

Rastrick were emphatic eight-wickets winners over Elland in the Calderdale derby at Round Hill in the Huddersfield League.

The Hullen Edge men were bowled out for 98 in 29 overs and Rastrick wrapped up success in the 17th over of their reply.

Wasim Javed dismissed Liam Fletcher and Jacob Bower with the score on seven before Osama Ahmad (4-43) and Asif Afridi (3-28) ran through the rest of the Elland line-up. Paul Winrow top scored with 24.

Rastrick lost Matthew Lambert for a duck and Tom Barrett for 15 but opener Ovais Hussain stood firm with 49 not out off 52 balls.

Afridi (35 no) then hit four of the 10 balls he faced for six and two more to the boundary to bring matters to a hasty conclusion.

Skipper Darren Robinson had another fine match as Barkisland notched their expected win over lowly visitors Lepton Highlanders.

The game was not without its alarms for Barkisland, who slipped to 66-5 chasing the visitors’ 174 all out, before Robinson helped to restore some order.

Matthew Steers (4-38) and Robinson (4-47) did their best to keep Lepton in check. The demise of Qaiser Rashid (45), third out with the score on 97, stalled the Highlanders’ progress.

Barkisland’s top four batsmen all departed for single-figure scores but Robinson made a patient 58 and Harry Finch a crucial 31 not out to seal victory.

Barkisland now lead the Conference by seven points from Almondbury Wesleyans, who lost to Holmfirth, with Rastrick one point further back in third.