DEFEAT for their nearest rivals leaves York with a 13-point advantage in the Hunters ECB Yorkshire Premier League North title race, and it was an equally important day for the sides at the foot of the table as they battled among themselves for vital points in the fight against relegation.

The match of the day took place at Weetwood, where Woodhouse Grange stunned Yorkshire Academy, winning by two wickets with one ball to spare.

The visitors' chances of inflicting only the second home defeat on the Academy since the inception of the new league looked to have gone as they slipped from 56-1 to 100-7 chasing 149.

Top-scorer Tom Young had been dismissed for 38, but Chris Suddaby emerged as the hero with an unbeaten 26 late on to see his side over the line.

Earlier the hosts had been in trouble on 88-7, despite 41 from Harry Brook, but a stand of 54 late on between Yasaar Imtiaz (35) and Alec Drury (29no) helped them reach a competitive total as Josh Jackson (3-40) and Richard Walton (4-33) stood out with the ball for the visitors.

Stamford Bridge emerged as genuine title contenders with a seven-wicket win over Harrogate, a fifth straight victory putting them level on points with the reigning champions.

Ryan McKendry took 5-23 and Dominic Rhodes (3-14) as the visitors were bowled out for 129.

Kallen Bond, who top-scored with 34 and Nick Taylor, batting at No 9, with 30 made the only notable contributions with the bat.

Will Rhodes struck an unbeaten 65 as the home side climbed to second in the table.

Matthew Waite led the way with 90 and Chris Booth made 42 for York as they scored 240-7 at Moor Farm against Sheriff Hutton Bridge, for whom Russell Robinson finished with 3-79.

The home side reached 77-4 in reply before visiting skipper Daniel Woods took 4-12 as they were dismissed for 113.

The leaders' sixth straight win comes at the start of a key period in the title race which sees them take on all three of their main rivals over the next four weeks.

There were key matches at the foot of the table too, the first of which involved Acomb, who won for the first time since the end of April as they beat bottom side Easingwold by four wickets at The Green.

The visitors looked to be going well on 162-5, with Steve Piercy making 57 and Josh Greenlay (44), but they then lost their last five wickets for just five runs.

The visitors didn't have things all their own way and it took a fifth-wicket partnership between Joe Dale (76no) and Jack Spence (36) to settle the contest.

Hull's victory at Clifton Alliance moved them out of the bottom two to be replaced by their hosts.

Peter Shally (119) and Chris Grey (85) shared a stand of 170 in the visitors' 277-6, with Scott Hopkinson taking 4-81.

Grey then took 3-19 and Steve Sergeant (4-34) as the home side replied with 188, Dave Friend, batting at No 10, top scoring with 43 not out.

The final match of the round at Kings Mill Road concluded before tea had been taken at the other grounds.

Tom Kohler-Cadmore (58) was once again in the runs for Driffield and Afaq Rahim made 31 as the home side needed just less than eight overs to chase down Scarborough's total of 93 all out of which Oliver Stephenson contributed 42.

Ollie Ezard took 3-22 but the bowling honours went to Jamie Greveson, who finished with 4-7.