YORK Cricket Club swept to the Yorkshire ECB Premier Cricket League title in dramatic fashion.

Their five-wicket win at Sheffield Collegiate on Saturday saw them leapfrog their hosts and snatch the championship by a point.

York are now on course for a double as yesterday they reached the final of the League Cup by beating Yorkshire Academy at Clifton Park.

The league victory at Collegiate was rather more tense than the score suggests.

York skipper Marcus Wood started the game on the right note by winning the toss and asking his opponents to bat, thereby ensuring that York did not have to bowl them out to secure victory.

York's platform was set by the discipline and accuracy of opening bowlers Rob Flack and Greg How who had ripped the heart out of the Collegiate batting when Flack took a rest after 36 overs with the wscore on 78-6 with both claiming three victims.

How bowled throughout and kept a lid on Charlie Wall and Chris Colgate who made a rugged effort to retrieve the innings but they couldn't build the momentum to attain more than a workmanlike total of 161 as Riley O'Neill picked both off.

Steve Piercy and Simon Mason set off at a scoring pace with 46 off ten overs but they fell within four balls and Will Warne followed soon after.

By now Yorkshire player Andy Gray and veteran John Hesp were bowling their offspin in tandem. They threatened to strangle York's progress and Hesp deceieved Marcus Wood with a slower ball.

Nick Kay rose to the challenge and stroked boundaries while ever dependable Rob Flack used his reach to smnother the spin.

They added 65 before Kay departed and Duncan Snell finished the job with Flack to earn the six vital points to nullify the Steelers' pre-match five point advantage.

Scarcely had the celebrations ended when York took on Yorkshire Academy yesterday in the League Cup semi-final at Clifton Park and were asked to field by Academy skipper Richard Blakey.

Eleven overs later 79 runs were on the board, Chris Gilbert hitting 56 with nine boundaries, four of them sixes. Flack was summoned to restore order and he claimed three quick victims, including Gilbert and Blakey.

Scarborough based 15-year-old Ashley Lyth put together an accomplished innings which, in company with Asdil Rashid, raised Academy hopes with a useful score of 240 in the allotted 50 overs.

York lost three wickets for 32, only Steve Piercy looking resolute. He eventually found an ally in Mike Mortimer and York suddenly flourished.

Piercy's 69 took almost two hours but it gave York a chance which Mortimer and his skipper did not let pass. Mortimer departed for 67, leaving Wood to hit the winning runs and reach his own 50 with an elegant square boundary.

York will now meet next Sunday the winner of the Cleethorpes v Barnsley semi-final.

Oxbridge Yorkshire ECB

County Premier League

Final table

P W L T C A Pts

York 26 17 6 1 0 2 136

Sheffield Collegiate 26 16 6 0 0 4 135

Harrogate 26 17 6 0 0 3 130

Doncaster 26 17 6 0 0 3 125

Cleethorpes 26 15 5 0 2 4 121

Driffield 26 13 10 1 0 2 94

Scarborough 26 10 10 1 0 5 97

Castleford 26 11 12 0 1 2 96

Yorkshire Academy 26 10 12 0 0 4 90

Barnsley 26 9 10 1 0 6 87

Sheffield Utd 26 8 15 0 1 2 78

Rotherham T 26 5 17 0 0 4 50

Hull 26 5 20 0 0 1 42

Appleby Frod 26 3 21 0 0 2 34

Yorkshire League Cup semi-final

Yorkshire Academy: H Rashid c&b Piercy 1, C Gilbert ct Mason b Flack 56, A Lyth b Kay 87, P Holdsworth ct Wood b Flack 4. R Blakey b Flack 3, C Batchelor ct Piercy b How 3. A Rashid b Boyle 37, A Anderson run out 6, D Conway b Boyle 133. S Tennant not out 2, G Norton ct Piercy b Boyle 2. Extras 26, total 240 all out.

Bowling: S Piercy 10-0-38-1, M Mortimer 4-0-34-0, R O'Neill 10-1-42-0, Flack 7-0-36-3, G How 10-2-37-1, N Kay 5-0-32-1, A Boyle 3.4-0-16-3.

York: S Piercy ct Tennant b Conway 69, S Mason c&b Gilbert 10, W Warne ct Anderson b Gilbert 1, N Kay b Conway 1, D Snell b Norton 7. M Mortimer b Norton 67, M Wood not out 51, R Flack not out 3. Extras 32, total 241 for 6 wkts.

Bowling: C Gilbert 10-2-52-2, D Conway 10-3-45-2, G Norton 9-1-33-2, S Tennant 10-1-48-0, A Rashid 6-0-33-0, A Lyth 2.1-0-16-0.

Updated: 15:21 Monday, September 13, 2004