BLISTERING batting by Dan Broadbent and Simon Mason swept York Cricket Club to a crushing nine-wicket victory over Castleford.

York took advantage of a break in the weather and a good batting surface at Clifton Park to chase down Castleford's huge total of 289.

Failure to bowl out their opponents cost Marcus Wood's side two points but a similar fate befell Barnsley in defeating Hull so York's trailing margin with the South Yorkshire club remains at ten points in the Oxbridge Yorkshire County ECB Premier League.

The feature of the York innings was the superb stand of 256 between Broadbent and Mason which produced a barrage of boundaries and sixes.

Castleford chose to bat first and tall opener Chris Young took on the challenge of paceman Nick Thornicroft with a series of expensive boundaries.

However, after 11 overs, he tried one too many and was comfortably caught in the covers by Mason. Meanwhile, his opening partner, Acomb product Stephen Sachs, was carefully building an innings which was later to flourish with his skipper John Randerson after Rich McClure had added a sprightly 50 off 57 balls. They put on 104 in 52 minutes with powerful strokes which stretched York's resources.

Teenager Sachs, like Randerson, later fell to Nick Kay within sight of a century, but together they had laid the foundations of a sizeable total that set York a target of 290.

York made a steady start but the task looked greater when Steve Piercy fell to Chris Young in the 11th over with 34 on the board.

Broadbent and Mason carefully staked out their claim and eventually released a torrent of shots which produced 28 boundaries with Broadbent himself striking six clearances which enabled York to win with seven overs to spare.

However, the York duo's sizzling strokeplay was tame stuff compared with what was going on at Driffield.

Scarborough openers Darren Harland and Kunwar Bansil smashed the league record for the first-wicket stand in the Seasiders' 77-run victory.

Skipper Harland (172no) and Bansil (132no) amassed 311-0 from their 55 overs to beat the previous best partnership of 270 which was set by Doncaster's Simon Widdup and Duncan Martindale in 1994.

Driffield were then bowled out for 234 by a Scarborough side missing Adam Lyth and Chris Gilbert, who were sharing 12th man duty at the England v West Indies second Test at Headingley Carnegie.


Oxbridge Yorkshire County ECB Premier League

York v Castleford

Castleford: S Sacks b Kay 88, C Young ct Mason b Thornicroft 29, S Le Roux b Piercy 1, R McClure b Kay 51, J Randerson ct Thornicroft b Kay 86, C Jackson lbw b Kay 0, W Hodson run out 13, C Younes not out 9, C Welburn not out 3. Extras 9. Total 289-7 (55 overs).

Bowling: N Thornicroft 8-0-46-1, L Devlin 6-1-18-0, S Piercy 22-3-107-1, C Palmer 5-0-27-0, N Kay 11-1-60-4, M Wood 3-0-24-0.

York: S Piercy lbw b Young 13, D Broadbent not out 151, S Mason not out 115. Extras: 11. Total 290-1 (48.1 overs).

Bowling: C Young 11.1-0-42-1, W Hodson 8-1-33-0, C Welburn 3-0-27-0, Sub 10-0-76-0, J Randerson 2-0-16-0, A Romaniw 8-0-40-0, C Younes 6-0-48-0.

York incomplete win by 9 wickets.