The Hunters Estate Agent York & District Senior League retained the Leeds Area Council Knockout Trophy when they beat the Wetherby League by one run at Spofforth.

In a re-run of last year's final, the York side batted first and were given a sound start by Paul Wright (Carlton Towers) and Steve Foster (Goole) who put on 42 before the former was dismissed by Richard Ward for 20.

Hopes of a bludgeoning Stuart Coleman innings ended when he was caught by Mike Richmond off James Roberts for 15 at 82 before Foster was bowled by Jan Gadzina after making 54 off 73 balls.

York skipper Craig Shipton (Whitkirk) raised the strike rate with 31 off 26 balls before he fell to another Richmond catch.

Then, Dave England (Goole) and David Longley (Carlton Towers) provided some master-class running between the wickets to add 41 in the final four overs and lift the total to 206-7. James Roberts was the pick of the Wetherby bowlers with 3-46.

Wetherby's innings had reached 26 in the eighth over when Nick Robinson was run out for 11 by a direct hit from Richard Medforth.

Andy Wood and skipper Mike Richmond then put Wetherby in control as they added 88 runs for the third wicket. Young spinner Chris Pitts came in for heavy punishment.

Dave England, however, kept one end tight as he went for only 18 runs in his eight overs, while Paul Wright conceded only 15 runs off six overs. The introduction of Hornsea's Richard Medforth paid immediate dividends when he bowled Richmond with his first delivery after the batsman had made 44. Medforth then trapped Wood lbw for 56.

James Roberts (36) upped the Wetherby tempo until Craig Shipton tempted him to a catch by Matt Wright for 36.

The game entered the final over with Wetherby requiring ten runs to win with seven wickets down.

After conceding seven runs off his first three balls, Shipton had Richard Ward stumped by Steve Foster. A bye from the fifth ball left Wetherby needing two off the final delivery. Shipton produced a testing delivery which the batsman was only able to block. They failed to complete a single when Foster threw the ball to Shipton who whipped off the bails for a run-out.

Shipton's final figures were 4-29 and, having been second top scorer with 31, he unluckily missed out on the man-of-the-match award, which went to Wetherby's James Roberts.

Updated: 12:03 Wednesday, September 04, 2002