York's slump in form continued yesterday when they crashed to an eight-wicket Oxbridge Yorkshire ECB County Premier League defeat to the Yorkshire Academy, writes John Herbert.

Minus regular opening pair Stephen Piercy and Simon Mason, they struggled all afternoon against the Academy's tidy young bowlers, especially impressive pace-man Steve Patterson.

Make-shift openers Marcus Wood and Andy Kay were swiftly despatched. David Stiff persuaded Wood into an edge behind and Chris Gilbert raked through Kay. Six men reached double figures, Nick Kay and Nash Stone the most productive, but extras was significantly the top contributor to a middling all-out total of 166.

York tried seven bowlers, almost without success, as the Academy strolled comfortably to victory. John Shervak and Joe Sayers put on 85 before Shervak's over-ambition led to a run-out.

By the time the talented Sayers lofted Richard Gilbert to Brendan O'Donovan, the county youngsters were almost home and dry. Haroon Rashid and Tab Bhatti ensured no further alarms as the Academy completed to their eight-point maximum.

Harrogate and Sheffield Collegiate remain locked in a two-horse race for the title. Both took eght-point maximums on Saturday as they skipped over the hurdles of Barnsley and Appleby Frodingham respectively.

Harrogate's success was assured after visitors Barnsley won the toss, chose to bat and were soon in trouble at St George's Road.

They lost wickets at regular intervals through a generally unproductive afternoon where only Brett Hunsley, Dan Brunt and Mark Broadhurst passed the 20 mark.

They were undone largely by pacy Khaled Hussain and the ever-accurate seam of Dave Crowther. Only Matt Thewlis, spectacularly caught one-handed by Harrogate skipper Mike Stanford, could consider himself unlucky.

Chasing a target of 150 proved no problem for John Inglis and Alexis Twigg. The opening pair raced to a ten-wicket victory. Inglis devoured a lion's share of the requirement, but permitted Twigg the pleasure of hitting the winning runs and reaching his half century at the same time.

Sheffield Collegiate were obliged to bat first against Appleby Frodingham and posted a substantial 252-5 thanks to half centuries from Ed McKenna and Matt Root. Jim Tasker exploded any Frodingham hopes with a 6-28 off-spin return.

The victory keeps them two points ahead of Harrogate, but with two games against lowly Hull and one at home to Driffield to come, their path is comparatively easy. Harrogate visit York next week, then face Driffield and powerful Yorkshire Academy on the final weekend.

Elsewhere, Doncaster's hopes of second place were extinguished when they went down by eight wickets at Sheffield United, Driffield moved off the bottom after toppling Hull by nine wickets, Castleford overcame Cleethorpes and Scarborough failed in a big run chase at home to Rotherfham.

Updated: 14:30 Monday, September 02, 2002