HOLGATE WMC continued to dominate the York Amateur Bowling Association League as an 8-0 whitewash of fourth-placed Haxby Road saw them reach the half-way point of the season unbeaten.

RI Amateurs maintained second place with a 7-1 victory over struggling Dunnington.

Selby lost ground on the top two with a 6-2 defeat to visitors RI Corinthians.

The bottom two met at Shipton, the hosts gaining their first victory of the campaign with a 5-3 win over Clifton.

Monday's games gave both RI Amateurs and Selby the chance to take advantage of Holgate WMC’s night off by closing the gap to the top.

Amateurs, though, fell to an impressive display by Haxby Road at Ashton Lane. Malcolm Lewers, Ken Harrison and Gary Bunce won rinks for Haxby Road over Tony Horobin, Tony Cox and Bill Waldie respectively. Michael Bruce salvaged a point in a close win over Steve Cain.

Selby drew level with Amateurs in second thanks to a 7-1 victory over Dringhouses.

Bootham had a close encounter with Clifton, emerging 5-3 victors.

Shipton suffered a whitewash to RI Corinthians, with the aggregate score being 94-56 to the visitors.

The closest game of the night was at Rowntree, where, with just one shot the difference on aggregate (84-83), Dunnington won 5-3.

Division two leaders Copmanthorpe maintained top spot with a 6-2 victory at Scarcroft. Poppleton Road WMC kept the pressure on with a 7-1 win over Retreat at West Park.

Poppleton also maintained their good form with a whitewash of Harrogate, while Stamford Bridge went third with a similar 8-0 result against West Park.

On Monday, there were 7-1 wins for Hull Road Park over West Park, Osbaldwick over Retreat and Scarcroft against Harrogate.

Stamford Bridge took advantage of Poppleton Road WMC’s bye by going second, despite losing 5.5-2.5 to leaders Cop.

Meanwhile, in the York C&IU Evening League, Terry Wheatley's rink were the heroes for St Clement's as they beat Gary Bunce's rink 25-8 to secure the aggregate points against high-flying Clarence.

Peter Sankey's rink also won by just one shot, with Steve Caine's rink saving Clarence from a whitewash by beating John Cooper's rink by two shots.

Holgate beat Burton Lane 7-1 to go clear by four points at the top of the table, while Railway Institute overtook Clarence into take second place after taking maximum points from South Bank.

Wheatly was also to the fore in the York C&IU Afternoon League.

While St Clement's have withdrawn their 'B' team from due to lack of players, their 'A' team snatched a win in their match with Railway Institute, with skip Wheatley playing the winning shot on the last end.

That gave give his team the lead for the first time in the contest as they took the game by one shot.

Acomb 'A', with two wins from their two games, lead the table.