Stamford Bridge are virtually certain of taking the division two honours and claiming an immediate return to division one as they have a 29-point advan-tage over Tadcaster Magnet, who are also sure of promotion.

Entertaining Harrogate, Stamford saw Rupert Scales make 74 but his team-mates were not too supportive as Stuart Boyle claimed 4-35 and Nick Porteous 3-40 to have the visitors all out for 144.

Stamford's reply was not all plain sailing but, with Boyle making 28 and Dave Chaplin 38, they clinched the spoils with a six-wicket victory.

Magnets pocketed the full 30 points when they dismissed Wilberfoss for 136 after making a first innings score of 210-9.

Chris Malthouse led the way with 61, while valuable innings came from Mick Ransome (39), Paul Clark (41) and Tyrone Naude (29).

The latter pair were also to the fore when Tadcaster batted with Clark taking 4-41 and Naude 3-16 as Ben Jackson hit 38 and Geoff Room 40.

Earlier, Adam Lofthouse (4-116) and Mike Sothard (5-61) had accounted for the nine Tadcaster wickets to fall.

The Bridlington v Clifton Alliance result was not clear when reported but it appears Brid gained an advantage draw. Brian Rudd hit 81, Richard Lount 62 and Hafiz Khalid 39 to see Bridlington to 217-3. After tea, John Bladen made 27 while Will Hall captured 3-35 as Alliance appear to have drawn at 102-8.

Castleford's final game against bottom-placed Clifton Alliance next Saturday is a key encounter with the Calderdale side needing a result if they are to avoid dropping down to division three.

Despite making 170-8 through Peter Hadfield (28), Paul Hursthouse (40), Gary O'Neil (36) and Craig Piggott (26), Castleford were well beaten by Malton & Old Malton who won by five wickets after Ben Nicholson had made 51 and Neil Johnson 88.

Earlier Mark Yates had taken 4-65 for Malton, who are destined to just miss out on promotion.

Hornsea dropped to fourth behind Malton when they were unable to force victory over Bubwith, who are making a determined effort to avoid relegation.

Taking first innings, Hornsea got a shocking start as they lost four wickets for only 14 runs. However, they were rescued by a massive stand between centurions Dave Prescott (102) and Ian Clappison (101no) to take them to 232-7.

Dave Stephenson and Paul Van Dyke each claimed three wickets for Bubwith, who gained an honou-rable draw by reaching 182-8.

The village side's chief run-scorers were John Waterhouse (39), Gary Moore (45) and Brian Last (45), while Richard Medforth (4-51) was Hornsea's best bowler.

Information was sparce from Studley Royal where the hosts beat ten-man Scarborough by 44 runs. Peter Beard took 6-33 as Studley made 191-9, while Andy Mackle had 4-31 in Boro's 147.

Updated: 14:21 Monday, September 02, 2002