Aussie Travis Borlace produced one of his best performances of the season to help Clifton Alliance inflict a 23-run defeat on Heworth to deny the latter's chance of claiming the runners-up spot.

Borlace firstly hit his best league score of 90 as he and Dave Taylor (49) enabled Clifton to gain full batting points. Nevertheless, Heworth dismissed Clifton for 201 with five overs to spare, with Mark Bell (4-54) leading the way and support coming from Shahid Khan (3-57) and Kashif Mahmood (3-68).

Mahmood (46) then led Heworth's reply, with other runs coming from skipper Paul Mosey (28) and Jonathan Draper (26no), but the extra overs gained by their bowlers worked to their disadvantage as Borlace took 5-64 in 23 overs and James Postill 3-40 as they were bowled out for 178 in the 54th over.

Heworth's defeat enabled Acomb to hang on to second place despite their defeat at Easingwold, who grabbed a two-wicket win in unusual circumstances off the last ball.

Batting first, Acomb were taken to 181-7 by Chris Simpson (39), Richard Sykes (42) and Shanuka Dissanayake (38).

Jonathan Marwood (3-31) was the best home bowler and then hit 53 when his side replied. Martin Piercy (33) and Paul Skilbeck (36) were handy allies as Dave Sykes claimed 4-71 to move to 66 wickets in the season, while Shanuka Dissanayake supported with 3-95.

With the scores level on the last delivery, batsman Jason Sergeant failed to make contact as the ball went through to 'keeper Richard Sykes, who removed the bails in an attempted stumping.

However, Sergeant had not left his crease - and he and his partner were then able to scramble a bye to win the game.

Woodhouse Grange's overseas star, Kashif Raza, moved ahead in the wicket-taking stakes when his 5-46 against Osbaldwick took him to 67 wickets for the season.

Mark Thompson made 36 and Damian Aston 49 before Osbaldwick made a declaration after reaching 158-9.

Raza followed his bowling by top scoring with 38 in Grange's reply. Diran Joshi (4-53) posed some problems for the hosts but Neil Jackson made 34 and Steve Burdett an unbeaten 31 to steer Woodhouse to a three-wicket win.

Relegated Pocklington suffered a three-wicket defeat at Pickering, which finally ensured safety for the hosts.

Rod Hinch (55) scored a good half-century while Ian Camwell and Mike Newhouse both made 27 and Nathan Schultz an unbeaten 25 as Pocklington totalled 183-4.

Newhouse tried to control the Pickering batsmen as he took 5-42 in 17 overs but Chris Nichols (84) and Colin Frank (29) saw the Pikes to victory.

Beverley second-teamer Simon Roe was their match-winner at Sheriff Hutton Bridge, whose one-wicket loss with one delivery to spare confirmed their relegation.

Sheriff got off to a good start as Paul Oldfield (40) and Mike Smith (20) enjoyed a half-century opening stand. Steve Crowder weighed in with 23 before Paul Scaling produced a top score of 54.

Simon Roe captured a superb 8-95 in 21 overs, with the sequence broken by a run-out as the home side banked full batting points at 205-9.

Mike Smith removed Tim Fordon and Peter Parnaby with only 19 on the board but his side's next success was a long time coming as Jamie Mitchell and Ali Brumfield added 125 before the latter fell to Nick Scaling for 52.

Paul Oldfield then made inroads with 4-63 but could not prevent Mitchell reaching his century. The opener's innings was ended at 185-7 when he was run out by Steve Crowder and Beverley's last man, Barry Sayer, arrived at the wicket with 15 still required for victory.

He proved to be just the man for a crisis, making an unbeaten 12 to help Ian Sugden (7no) take the East Yorkshire side to a narrow win in an exciting final home game for the Bridge in the top flight.

Simon Kellett was another batsman to reach three figures when his unbeaten 101 paved the way for a draw in Dunnington's favour at Thirsk.

Kellett's first century of the season was his seventh in the premier division and his 15th in the York League and, together with Hamed Khan (69no), enabled Dunnington to recover after Barry Petty had taken three early wickets in the champions' 229-3.

In Thirsk's reply, Keogan Luiters made 27 and Dave Greenlay 26 before Petty ensured a draw at 157-5 by making an unbeaten 27.

Updated: 14:22 Monday, September 02, 2002