Dunnington skipper Collis King recorded the second highest score in the premier division when he made 165 against Sheriff Hutton Bridge in an illustrious innings which saw him hit 17 fours and 4 sixes.

Whilst he missed out on going top of the individual score list, King did gain an entry in the record books as his partnership of 274 for the second wicket with Hamid Khan, who made 105, surmounted the previous best stand of 242 between Brian Leckenby and Colin Frank for Pickering in 2001.

Faced with a home total of 280-1, The Bridge batsmen made a fine response as they too found the Common Road pitch to their liking.

Valuable runs came from Ian Clish 27, Steve Crowder 46, Paul Scaling 36 and brother Nick Scaling 27 before an unbeaten 49 by skipper Paul Oldfield saw his side to a respectable draw at 221-7.

Ajaz Akhtar was Dunnington's best bowler with 4 for 59 whilst paceman Zahid Khan took 2-54 in support.

There was an avalanche of runs at Clifton Park where three batsmen hit centuries.

Unfortunately for the hosts two of the three figure scores were posted by opposing batsmen as Beverley ran up a massive score of 304-2. Richard Taylor made 30 and Neil Stephenson 33 as Beverley moved to 83-2 but their innings were merely a starter course for a banquet of runs provided by Oliver Grantham who rattled an unbeaten 124 and Jamie Mitchell who cracked 103 no as the pair added 221 in an unbroken third wicket partnership.

York's skipper Andy Kay then matched his counterpart by hitting 100. He had good support from Brendan O'Donovan, who made 43 and Peter Bainbridge 29 and this enabled the home side to ward off any threat posed by Peter Parnaby 3-72 and Ian Sugden 3-64 and earn York a very respectable draw at 241-8.

Two sides still nursing feint hopes of gaining honours were in opposition when third placed Acomb entertained fourth placed Woodhouse Grange in another game which saw batsmen taking the honours.

Home side left hander Andy Tute made 82 and Joe Burton 53 as Acomb took full batting points at 214-8.

Simon Dwyer turned in the better bowling figures for Grange with 3-34 whilst Kamran Sajid's three wickets cost him 70.

He then hit a fine unbeaten 107 as, with Nick Hadfield adding 62, Woodhouse gained an eight-wicket win, which lifted them one point above their opponents.

By far the best bowling performance of the day saw Pickering's Charlie Marwood take 7-46 to dismiss Clifton Alliance for 150.

Mark Shepherd provided backing with 3-47 as Lorenzo Ingram 46 and John Hunter 26 featured with the bat.

After the break, Shepherd added 31 but the match-winning factor came from overseas man Sean Stuchbery, who reached exactly 100 not out as Pickering eased into the top half of the table with an eight-wicket win.

The local clash at Sessay saw the home side improve their survival chances with a comfortable victory over a Thirsk side who are trailed off at the foot of the division. Former Thirsk junior Stuart Peirse bowled a mean opening spell which saw him concede just four runs before having to take a rest after seven overs under the fast bowling regulations.

Sessay resident Des Wyrill was Thirsk's top scorer with 35 whilst teenager Mark Cook made 25no but good bowling by Mick Polson 3-56 and Steve Langstaff 4-37 held the batsmen in check and a final total of 134-8 was soon proved to be inadequate as Matt Till hit 89 to steer Sessay to a six-wicket victory.

Wold motor on

THE Easingwold juggernaut continued on its inexorable way towards the league title when they had a good win at Elm Park Way over Heworth which opened up a 70 point-lead over reigning champions Dunnington.

Heworth's South African, Darius Slabbert continued his recent good form in making an unbeaten 101 whilst Richard Bowling gave sound support with 57 in a total of 185-5.

Easingwold skipper Martin Piercy got his side's reply off in positive fashion with 51 but then saw three more wickets fall cheaply.

However Martin Robinson again showed his undenied class with an unbeaten 88 and big hitter Dan Copeland weighed in with 31no as Easingwold gained their tenth win in 14 games by 6 wickets.

Updated: 10:05 Monday, July 26, 2004