Division One Westgate 170-9*, Warton 98-7 Westgate captain Andy Hill won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first on a solid deck. Dave Lord (34) was in scintillating form as he took the attack early to the Warton bowlers, but when he was dismissed Westgate found themselves at 55-3 with the game in the balance. Dave Hannigan (34) played the anchor role and Aaron Pearce (38) the aggressor as the pair played brilliantly in a 63 run partnership in 17 overs.

Once Pearce fell to Ricky Nelson (1-9), Nigel Parkinson (25 not out) then supported Hannigan as Westgate compiled a testing score, despite James Rafferty (4-51) returning at the death of the innings to keep in check with a couple of wickets. Andrew Ideson (1-39) also bowled well without much look from his eleven overs.

In response Phil Bovis (38) looked in good touch and also looked to hit boundaries, however once he was dismissed by a great catch by Darren McDermott on the boundary, the Warton innings seemed to lose all momentum. Instead of going for the win they settled for a draw early in the innings, as a brilliant spell by Peter Wilson (4-14) seemed to extract a bit extra out of the wicket, and he proved almost impossible to score off in his 18 overs. Graeme Crowther (19 not out) dug in, as did Nelson, and Andy Hill (1-17) juggled his bowlers around in an attempt to take wickets. However the overs were played out with relative ease in the end with the wicket maintaining its flatness, Westgate taking 8 points from the game and Warton just the 1, however maintaining their position at the top of the table.

Milnthorpe 127*, Heysham 129-6 Glorious weather at last and a wicket with plenty more runs in it than perhaps the scores suggest. Curran won the toss and did what Heysham had planned on doing and batting. That is probably the only part of the game which Milnthorpe won or competed in throughout.

A poor batting display along with a dogged bowling from the ever impressive Sam Calverley and Cassidy both sharing the 10 wickets evenly. Only Baldwin(31) and S Singleton(31) looked anything like at home against some uneven bounce. Dixon had a late posh side cameo of 13 to get a bowling total for Milnthorpe.

Milnthorpe knew early wickets were vital and when L Caverley was LBW to Baldwin a sniff was in the air. Skipper Jamie Antcliffe was though to be the thorn in the side, he rode his luck early doors but then dug in like an "Alabama tick" for a skippers innings.

Whincup(25) was more expansive and wasted no time in opening up though twice should have been run out.

Curran changed the bowling around in the hope of a breakthrough and after Illingworth got Whincup Wills accounted for P Antcliffe and Dixon got Powers suddenly it was 50 for 4 at drinks. Cassidy then smashed 17 off an over before getting over excited and holin out to Wills at square leg. Cooper and Baldwin were both brought back in a last gasp gamble but to no avail. The fielding was perhaps a little lacklustre from Bowman,Baldwin and Cooper.

Wills though came back and took skipper Antcliffe for 36 but the game was perhaps to far gone by the time Hill smashed two 4s to finish the contest and put Milnthorpe out of there misery on a day they will want to forget.

It will be a big shout to get to the summit in the second half of the season but the players are always up for the challenge and have never been a team to do things the easy way, but a victory against bogey side Burneside next week would surely be just the tonic.

Bolton-le-Sands 210-6*, Windermere 144 A late collapse by visitors Windermere saw Sands claim a crucial 15 point victory on a balmy summer afternoon at the main Road Ground.

On winning the toss away skipper James Park elected to bowl first on a hard track that offered some movement to the bowlers whilst allowing batsmen to play their shots.

Crawford struck the first blow as Loxam was trapped lbw after hitting two boundaries in the previous over. Mark Clarkson carried on his good form playing his shots from the off with Wolfenden more cautious at the other end.

The pair put on 73 for the second wicket before the latter was bowled for 27 but at 88-2 off 21 overs the home side look set for a big total. Beaumont (15) briefly threatened before becoming Crawford’s third victim but Clarkson passed 50 and it was a surprise when he fell to the same bowler, caught at slip for a well made 65.

Ireland used the outside edge to great effect in making 36, but Crawford made it five wickets, clipping the off stump from an attempted pull. Jonny Holden added 24 not out including a six in the final over as the 200 was passed. Crawford bowled throughout taking 5-94 with Park taking 1-43 from eleven overs.

In reply Park and Laidler started confidently despite the odd scare and after a pacy opening spell from Mark Clarkson it was Robert Clarkson who made the breakthough as Laidler was caught at mid off.

Park made the most of the couple of chances to reach his half century and with support from Sam Fletcher the visitors were sitting pretty at 91-1, with plenty of overs left.

Finally the home side held their catches as Park fell to a skier caught by Beaumont at long off off Loxam (1-42) for 57 and Fletcher was well taken by Dyson at gully for 27. Lewthwaite edged to the keeper off Rob Clarkson but Hartnett (16) and Crawford (13) briefly threatened to keep the visitors in with a shout.

However from 134-4 with twelve overs remaining wickets tumbled as Clarkson castled both batsmen on his way to figures of 5-29 from twelve overs and Dyson removed Carruthers.

The returning Mark Clarkson (2-25) proved too much for Howarth and Walker and Dyson (2-38) bowled Sanders with eleven balls remaining as Sands wrapped up victory to move up to ninth in the table.

Division Two Bare 206-4*, Moor Hospital 174-8 Bare came into this game on Saturday as league leaders and took nine points from a gutsy Moor hospital side.

Skipper Moller decided to bat first on probably the warmest day of the season as he won the toss , makeshift openers Jimmy Robinson (42) and Andrew Sharman (8) put on 47 for the first wicket before Sharman miscued a pull to wide mid-on.

Skipper Moller batting at number 3 announced his intentions by getting off the mark with a six into Powderhouse Lane and dominated the bowling from the outset. putting together good partnerships with Robinson , Osmotherly and then a superb one with Frank Smith of 94.

Moller had six fielders on the boundary as he continued to dominate , passing 50 with successive boundaries , the latter a huge 6, and finally moving on to 91 before being bowled by Thomas as he sought his century and late runs to add to the Bare total.

Frank Smith played superbly well , a perfect foil for Moller and finished unbeaten on 33 with Tom Smith the other unbeaten batsman with 11.

Moor’s bowlers toiled away manfully in the heat and there were wickets for Thomas (2 for 57) Wilkinson (1 for 34) and Speak (1 for 49).

Moor began their reply purposefully but were pegged back by some accurate bowling and after 10 overs had only reached 19 for the loss of Speak (5) , Preston (24) and Thomas (35) pushed on before both fell to Berry (2 for 29) , Parkin (20) began slowly but when joined by Stephenson Moor clawed themselves back into the game as they put together a stand of 62.

Stephenson was looking a real threat to Bare as he smashed the change bowlers around the ground scoring a rapid 67 before finally succumbing to Tom Smith (2 for 51) .

Steve Bransby (2 for 23) returned to the Bare attack and took two quick wickets which left Moor to go for a well deserved draw as the run rate required became beyond them.

Ibis v Coniston Coniston won the toss and elected to bat on a glorious wicket at provincial!! Coniston found it tough and the batting pace was slow - only opener R Warne looking to play attacking from the offset . C.lavery 34 and M Fryer 28no held the middle innings together and got to a total of 156-8. D Troughton now on 44 wickets of the season claiming 5-62 and s.shipperd 3-49.

In reply Ibis started positively with S Benson racing to 17 before getting trapped in front lbw to Eccles. Coniston thought they were in with a chance after claiming two quick wickets of Robinson and Troughton!! However a partnership of 90 which saw an outstanding 74 From Braithwaite put Ibis on the brink at 142-4.

C. Dixon and A. Pickering put the game to bed which saw Ibis pick up there 3rd win in as many games. C Lavery pick of the coniston bowlers with 3-51.

* Reports are unaltered accounts as received by clubs after the weekend matches. See Thursday's Westmorland Gazette for the league round up.