DUNNINGTON clinched top spot in the Hunters ECB Yorkshire League North standings with a 22-run victory at home to Castleford.

It was the seventh consecutive win for the Common Lane side, who began the season with two defeats but from that point on never looked back.

Adam Sutcliffe (62) helped get the innings off to a positive start. The opener, passing 50 for the third time this campaign, shared partnerships worth 62 and 54 with Andrew Bilton and Harrison Mussell for the first two wickets.

Eddie Morrison (3-35) captured the wickets of all three but Jack Bolam and Ashley Watson put on an unbeaten 54 as the home side reached 174-4.

Three of the visitors’ top four all got starts despite which they were always off the pace and Eitan Litvin’s run-a-ball 30 towards the end came too late.

Stamford Bridge brushed aside Sheriff Hutton Bridge to claim the runners-up spot, winning at Moor Farm with almost 20 overs to spare.

The home side, who had been 40-1, were bowled out for 94 with three wickets each from Dominic Rhodes (3-26) and James Keast (3-24).

In their reply, the visitors lost a couple of early wickets but then a partnership of 65 between Benjamin Pearson and James Pick got them almost over the line, Pick there at the end unbeaten on 44.

The result means the visitors complete the season as the only side unbeaten away from home having won four and had one no result on their travels in 2020.

Clifton Alliance leap-frogged Sheriff Hutton Bridge into third after beating Woodhouse Grange in the closest finish, winning with eight balls and one wicket to spare.

In a low-scoring encounter at Alliance, the visitors reached 149-8 thanks largely to a half-century from opener Tom Stubley (60) and 35 from Jonty Atkinson, the latter one of five wickets for Craig Nicoll, who finished with figures of 5-35 from eight overs.

The hosts struggled to build partnerships, Stephen Burdett taking 3-26, and it needed an excellent knock from Samuel Grant to hold the innings together. One of five batsmen to have made a century in this year’s competition, Grant scored 61 from 57 balls, including four sixes, but when he was ninth out with three still needed for victory, the match could easily have gone either way.

Acomb’s eight-wicket victory at St George’s Road sees them clinch a place in the top-half, and like so many of their positive results this season it owed much to the batsmanship of William Wade. The right-handed opener finishes the season as the leading run scorer by more than 100 runs.

Wade passed 50 for the fifth time in nine innings and, on this occasion, remained 60 not out in an eight-wicket win over Harrogate, an opening stand of 134 alongside skipper Matthew Dale (70) setting their side well on the way to overcoming the hosts’ total of 158-7.

Acomb bowler Joe Dale took 3-40.

Driffield, like Harrogate, have struggled for form but signed off in spectacular fashion with a 40-run victory over York at Kings Mill Road in what was, by some distance, the highest scoring game of the day.

The hosts built an imposing total of 251-6 while York bowler Harvey Gration finished on 3-36.

Duncan Snell (44) and Guy Darwin (34) made a positive start but three wickets from Nicky Johnson (3-59) left the visitors with too much to do in the later stages and they closed on 211-8, missing out on the top half of the table on net run rate.