THE Pilmoor Evening League season has begun without Acomb after they followed Stillington in withdrawing from the competition.

Easingwold, runners-up in division two last year, accepted the offer of first division cricket in Acomb’s place, maintaining an eight-team first division, with the second division now comprising six teams playing each each other three times except for one fixture.

On the opening night, Easingwold fell at home to Clifton Alliance, while Sessay beat Helperby.

Easingwold batted first and made 92-5. Clifton’s Australian, Liam Hope-Shackley, dominated the reply with 61 not out as Clifton won at 93-3 with time to spare.

Sessay lost an early wicket and might have lost another when Naveen Kavikara, their Sri Lankan former under-19 international, was dropped.

Kavikara took advantage in making 43, and there were useful contributions from Matthew Wass (19) and Paul Flintoff (20) as Sessay closed on 110-5, Brendan Banks (2-18) and Dan Marston (2-12) having the best returns.

Helperby's reply never quite had the required momentum as Arron Bumby bowled a tight

opening spell, and although Dan Marston made 36 and Dan Spink 21, they closed well

short on 77-5, with Jonny Scaling (2-24) picking up two wickets in his last over.

There was no play in the games between Dringhouses and Newburgh, and Huby and champions Sheriff Hutton Bridge.

In division two, Raskelf beat Alne and Thirsk won at Crayke, while Sheriff

Hutton and Rowntrees & Huntington agreed to share the spoils with no ground available.

A Snowball (47) and Sam Porter (27no) provided the basis of Raskelf's 134-5, H Stevens (2-29) having the best return for Alne.

The reply saw C Spence make 21, but Jake Petty (3-11) and Lindon Giuffrida (3-6) kept Raskelf on top and Alne closed on 81-8.

Thirsk posted 117-2, with Ben Collinson and Dan Orchard retiring on 50 and 52 respectively. Crayke stuck to their task in the field and youngsters Ollie Levin and Jack Redshaw impressed with tidy spells.

The reply saw Peter Thomas make 20 and Ian Pears 17, but they never seriously threatened the target and closed on 91-6 with T Spence taking 2-27 for the winners.