THE race for the Oxbridge Yorkshire ECB Premier League crown has been stalled by Hull's failure to turn out at York yesterday.

York went in to the weekend at the top of the table but were beaten by challengers Sheffield Collegiate at Abbeydale Park on Saturday.

Hopes thet they would be able to make up some lost ground against Hull at Clifton Park yesterday were scuppered when York chairman Chris Houseman fielded a call from Hull saying that they were unable to put out a side because of injuries and work commitments.

It has left York point-less from a crucial weekend, but the matter will be raised at a Yorkshire League committee meeting tomorrow when Houseman will be pressing for York to be awarded the win.

The forfeit of a fixture is as amazing as it is unprecedented. It is thought that a fixture has never been cancelled before as the league's rules do not even provide for such an event.

The league must now decide what points York should receive. It is also possible that they will order the match to be replayed.

If the league do opt to award points they must decide how many as varying amounts of points are awarded according to how matches are won.

A maximum eight points are given when the opposition is bowled out. Six points are awarded for an incomplete win - when a team is not bowled out.

Ironically Hull had a comprehensive victory over Appleby Frodingham on Saturday, scoring 256.

The upshot of the whole business is that Scarborough are the new leaders after back-to-back victories over Doncaster and Appleby Frodingham.

York were beaten for the first time in 13 games when they went down by 22 to Collegiate in a match which Nigel Durham's men largely controlled.

York appeared to be well set for victory at Collegiate when they restricted their hosts to 147-9 off the full 55 overs.

Batting was never easy on a slow pitch and even an accomplished batter like Richard Kettleborough, the former Yorkshire and Middlesex player, took 119 balls for his 54 runs.

His effort came despite a loose start from the York bowlers who conceded 68 runs off their opening 16 overs.

After a sloppy start Jeetan Patel got into the groove and bowled 22 overs for 27 runs and his four wickets put York in control.

He was joined by seamer Greg How who took three wickets in 15 balls for nine runs but the Collegiate tail toughed it out to add 28 runs in the last ten overs and that proved to be the margin of victory.

By contrast York survived the first ball loss of Stephen Piercy as Simon Mason and Rob Flack steadily built up the total.

With 23 overs left both had gone by York's final seven wickets only needed 65 runs. Unfortunately for York a severe bout of runless crease occupancy set in and the last six wickets fell for 27 runs as panic set in against the tidy leg-spin of Matt Dixon, who earned five wickets in a patient spell of 14 overs.

While York slid to their first defeat since losing at Cleethorpes pn May 5, Scarborough took six points from an incomplete win over Doncaster.

The Seasiders were labouring at 99-5 when Adam Lyth hit 94 and with support from Rob Barlow (42no) were able to post 237-8.

Doncaster were never really in the run chase and closed on 193-6, William Mallory taking 3-46.

Scarborough then completed a brilliant weekend with another imcomplete win over Appleby Frodingham at North Marine Road.

Highlight of the run feast was a huge second wicket partnership between Clint Heron (169no) and Neil Elvidge (128no) as Scarborough amassed 306-1. Appleby Frodingham made a brave reply, scoring 246-8, Roger Gilbert taking five wickets.

Jon Inglis was another centurion as he hit an undefeated 151 as Harrogate won by 122 runs at Rotherham yesterday.

Harrogate scored 274-1 then bowled out the Clifton Lane team for 152, Mike Stanford taking 6-50.

That made up for Harrogate's shock 87-run defeat at Barnsley on Saturday - a result which ended a run of five straight wins.

Updated: 10:07 Monday, July 21, 2003