RAIN and a total Saturday fixture washout was the main story of the cup weekend for the Vale Cricket League with only the Sunday fixtures surviving the downpours, writes Graham Purdy.

Clifton Alliance continued their winning ways in the first round of the HPH Cup with a comprehensive home victory against Melbourne.

Winning the toss and batting first, Clifton recovered from the early loss of opener Joshua Clark to post an imposing 263-6 with Ali Wray (99) falling short of a century in pursuit of quick runs.

Positive contributions from Ryan Partington (48), Richard Marshall (26) and Lewis Clark (47) put the home side in charge, which their bowlers and fielders backed up, dismissing the visitors cheaply (125) with eight catches held and the wickets shared out between all six bowlers, Jake Mead (3-9) claiming a trio.

A fluent 58 from Adam Thomas was the only plus for Melbourne against a strong Clifton bowling outfit.

Heworth also booked their place in the next round with a home win over Hemingbrough (118 all out) who succumbed to the bowling of Raul Patel (6-31) claiming their last 5 wickets in a devastating spell.

Heworth (123-5) also found batting hard going, needing 30 overs and the loss of five wickets to secure the win.

Thixendale’s run chase (126-4) at Stamford Bridge was a little less sedate with Fred Smyth (87) finding the boundary 15 times, including four maximums, to lead the run chase with 20 overs to spare.

Earlier, Stamford Bridge (125, including 28 by the way of extras) failed to make any impact on the Thixendale bowling with Henry Harrison (3-30) among the wickets.

The only fixture in the Scouthern Cup saw Clifton Alliance IV (284-3) emulating their third team with a comprehensive win away at Heslington (81).

An opening partnership of 154 between Mick Wood (122) and Jacob Rymer (69) set the tone for the day as Heslington’s young bowling attack found the going hard with Wood’s century including 19 boundaries.

Lukas Ruane (41 not out) and Ranadeep Banjeree (31no) also weighed in with runs before the young Clifton attack completed the task.

Matthew Carruthers (4-33) was the spearhead of that bowling unit and finished with the best figures for Alliance.

The Vale Cricket League player of the week award went to Clifton Alliance's Mick Wood for his century (122) at Heslington.