The first division championship race in the Horwath Pulleyn Heselton York Vale League is hotting up but Ovington maintained their lead after beating Stamford Bridge.

Ovington were indebted to Bridge old boy Andy Holmes (76no), who saw them to 197-7 at tea.

Ian Homes and Graham Haigh had Bridge on the back foot from the start of their reply and at 48-5 the result was a foregone conclusion despite a nice 30 from R Headley, which took Bridge's score into three figures and gave them bonus points.

Norwich Union and York are locked together in second place.

York batted first against Bishopthorpe and lost Nadim Sadiq at 41 but skipper Kevin Mendham restored himself to the upper order with devastating affect. He and Sean Hunter rattled up 168 for the second wicket with Mendham reaching 110.

Adrian Harris joined the attack late on to claim three wickets as did Derek Gardiner.

Chasing 258 to win, Bishops were never in the hunt as they were reduced to 39-5. Although the tail wagged a little, Dave Zamvar (3-16) cut any further resistance short as York won by a huge margin.

York Post Office put Norwich Union under early pressure at 95-6 with Mike Hamshere among the wickets and skipper Ray Baggaley snapping up a couple of victims behind the stumps. Ran Banerjee and Will Spence's seventh-wicket stand of 53 helped NU to 163-7.

The Postmen also lost early wickets to Gawaine Hogg, who struck with his second delivery, and were struggling at 43-4. Glynn Botterill and Dave Hughes gave them hope with a stand of 55 but the innings fell apart when Keith Lawrence struck, the last five wickets going down for eight runs.

Burn closed the gap on Stockton & Hopgrove after their six-wicket win at Burn, while Hemingbrough continue to struggle at the foot of the table after limping to 119-8 against Drax. They did put up a credible display in the field as Drax were pegged back to 45-4 but an unbeaten half century from Scott Simm and 26 from Brian Knight saw Drax home.

Division two leaders Westow were blitzed by North Duffield openers David Beilby and Lee Wild, who reached 212, 105 coming from the first 20 overs. Beilby's 66 included six fours and three sixes, while Wild made a career best 145 with 22 fours and five sixes.

Westow also had 100 on the board after 20 overs but had lost too many wickets. Eighteen-year-old Neil Earl (63) top-scored, with Colin Small-wood making 62, but it was in vain.

British Sugar jumped to the top after defeating Fulfordgate by 26 runs. Steve Bellerby (65) carried the Sugar innings to 155-6. For Fulford, only skipper Keith Pepper and a cameo knock from Steve Bygott offered resistance to Phil Jones.

Heworth made a promising start against Wheldrake, putting on 64 for the first wicket before Harry Codling struck with two in two balls. The superb John Draper (104no) and Anthony Rogers (68no) then took the attack to the cleaners.

Neil Thurlow apart, Wheldrake made little progress in reply and Heworth eased into third spot.

Copmanthorpe restricted Thorpe Willoughby to 101-9 through John Hughes and R Suganda. Peter Northfield and Sugandra's batting ensured Cop won by six wickets.

Fifteen-year-old Richard Johnson made an unbeaten 81 in a second-wicket stand of 159 with Mike Walker as Thixendale raced to 181-2 at Clifton Alliance. Paul Thorpe (65) held the reply together but once he went the innings fell away to 153-8.

Escrick Park forged ahead in division three after a seven-wicket defeat of Hirst United. Park, the only club in the league to win all their games, inflicted the first reversal on Hirst with Eric Bindless and John Reynolds sharing the wickets.

Kelfield, having whipped out the York University Staff openers for six, were made to wait anther 50 runs until snaring Indra Ray for 38. Jim Watt carried the rest of the innings for an unbeaten half century as they posted 154-7.

Pete Buck and Phil Smith attacked from the off rattling up 106 for the first wicket. Pete O'Brien slowed things with three wickets but Neil Atkinson steered his side home by six wickets to claim third place.

Close behind are Tollerton Out-laws, who beat a spirited Wood-house Grange. Tony and Steve Raper, plus contributions down the order, got them to 173.

Doug Bartle (61) and Andy Kenny put on 91 for the third wicket for the 'Grange but the consistent Tony Raper and later Andy Charlton saw the Outlaws win by 45 runs.

Askham Bryan were making steady progress against Stillingfleet until Mike Nielson came on. His third over, a triple wicket maiden, left the Villagers struggling at 48-5. Chris Parker (35) topped the scoring in their poor 114-8.

'Fleet were pulled round from 35-3 by Wayne Livesey and Rob Murray with a 61 stand and, despite losing a couple of wickets in the 90s, progressed to win by four wickets.

Unbeaten Burton Salmon are clear in division four after hammering closest rivals Wistow, who were torn apart by old fox Mark Pawson, whose variation of pace, flight and spin had them reeling at 28-5. A no-nonsense approach from Mark Alford, which included six sixes, saw him race to 74 out of 127.

Max Driscoll's dynamic 90, with David Thornton at the other end, saw the runs knocked off in 20 overs, their fourth big opening stand in recent games.

Burn were going well at Heworth as John Wilson and Stuart Rowley took them to 43 before they were parted by two Heworth juniors, Jon Elsegood and O Couttie, who demoralised the visitors to 87 all out.

Heworth also had a good start with Elsegood and M Boothroyd moving to 44. The experienced Ron England and Wilson saw Heworth slip to 70-6 but they could not move 16-year- old D Nicholson and Barry Wright, who steered Heworth home.

Acomb had few problems against a beleaguered Huntington, who lost skipper Darren Willis to an ankle injury. Phil Chaffer (47) led the scoring as they reached 163-8, Mick Storey and Neil Harrington sharing the overs. In reply, there were four wickets for Richard Carberry and three each for Alistair Carberry and Chaffer, as only Storey offered any opposition in his last game before a cruciate ligament operation.

S Rowbottom (41) held the Selby innings together at Drax. However, Bob Wrigglesworth and Paul Smith both took four wickets to keep the visitors to 137-9, a total Drax easily reached, Wrigglesworth, Smith and Steve Goulden scoring freely.

Bishopthorpe, unbeaten leaders of division five, had to dig deep to win at York in a game featuring fine bowling.

York, never comfortable against Derryck Slack (6-45), had to thank Sumit Matra (48) for totalling 129.

In reply, Bishops were in a hole at 65-7 against David Murray (4-46), Jamal Hussain and Tom Copeland. Stephen Dale and Dave Stead added 50 for the eighth wicket to bring them back into it and last pair Tony Sharman and Phil Helliwell scored the 15 runs they required.

Ray Phillpot's half century and Geoff Romans' 35 saw Selby to 153-4 against in-form Pocklington.

Mike Wellock and A Walker added 66 for Pock's second wicket to leave them in the driving seat, but the picture changed when Chris Harkin and T Smith saw wickets tumble. However, last man 15-year-old Daniel Boneham confidentally reached the boundary for the winning runs.

John Holmes and Alister North carried the Thorpe Willoughby side to 132 against Copmanthorpe, for whom Liam Elliker and Ben Beetham bowled well.

Hard hitting Gavin Dickinson (26) gave Cop a good start but the innings fell away to John Sugden and North. Maori S Green threatened to win the match alone until he was snared by Holmes' change of pace and there were also two superb catches from Sugden. But Thorpe won by 25 runs.

Wheldrake's good bowling dismissed Stockton & Hopgrove for 85, 42 of which went to the experienced Nigel Collinson.

Wheldrake's Dave Cockerill and J Upton reached 27 but it then became a procession as Mick Jay, Michael Collinson and dad Nigel ran through the order.

Drax put division one leaders Ovington out of the Guy Mitchell Cup in the first round. Batting first they struggled against Ian Holmes, who bagged his second five-wicket haul of the weekend, but a sixth-wicket stand of 60 between P Smith and Gary Slaywe helped them to 152. The Ovington reply never got underway against a tight attack, Keith Powell taking 4-22 as the hosts won easily.

Updated: 12:37 Thursday, June 27, 2002