YORK CC's mouth-watering Yorkshire League clash with Sheffield Collegiate at Clifton Park eventually fell victim to the weather yesterday.

On Saturday the weather gave York a chance of victory over Scarborough - the only YL game to be completed that day - but there was no escape yesterday when their fortunes fell at the hands of the accurately predicted late afternoon rains.

The Collegiate fixture lost 80 minutes to the weather in two interruptions after tea and bad light ended play with Collegiate 67 runs short with five wickets and 28 overs remaining - an interestingly poised but unsatisfactory outcome for a key fixture between last season's two top sides.

Openers Dan Broadbent and Michael Sheedy made steady but not altogether secure progress until they both fell in successive overs. Nick Kay and Simon Mason promised a substantial total, but they were both dismissed in short order by former Yorkshire player Richard Kettlebrough - in Mason's case to a phenomenal return catch.

York's scoring rate dropped to two an over and wickets fell to Rob Barlow's leg spin but the arrival of Nick Thornicroft produced a cameo knock with more sixes than fours and York ended with a not too secure total of 184.

However, Thornicroft soon had two victims and Mark Bell claimed a wicket in his first over to give York a sniff of victory.

However, the hugely experienced Ed McKenna's half century provided the resistance and when Bell trapped him in front, the failing light presaged an early end to what could have been an intriguing match.

York: D Broadbent ct Pitcher b Simpkins 12, M Sheedy lbw b Wylie, 13 S Mason c&b Kettlebrough 26, N Kay b Kettlebrough 20, R Flack ct Gaywood b Barlow 27, M Mortimer st Pitcher b Barlow 15, N Thornicroft ct Tasker b Barlow 25, M Wood ct Colgate b Barlow 19, G How lbw b Tasker 2, M Bell not out 8. Extras 17. Total 184-9. Bowling: A Wylie 10-1-41-1, G Simpkins 7-3-14-1, S Clark 5-2-12-9, R Kettlebrough 11-4-22-2, J Tasker 13-2-50-1, R Barlow 9-1-28-4.

Sheffield Collegiate: R Kettlebrough lbw b Thornicroft 0, N Gaywood ct Durham b Bell 9, S Clark ct Durhan b Thornicroft, 8, E McKenna lbw b Bell 60, S Colgate not out 20, R Tasker not out 2. Extras 14. Total 117- 5. Bowling: N Thornicroft 8-0-31-2, R Flack 7-4-12-0, M Bell 6-1-16-2, G How 3-0-24-1, D Broadbent 4-1-21-0.

Updated: 10:43 Tuesday, May 03, 2005