Three East Coast sides lead the way in division two with Sewerby in pride of place with a ten-point lead over neighbours Bridlington after gaining the better of a draw at Hemingbrough.

Aussie Mike Rowing made 43 for Sewerby and later followed with 3-67, while other valuable runs came from Mike Artley (53) and James Edmondson (26). Simon Cox (3-68) and James Dougherty (5-39) took the bowling honours for the hosts.

In reply, Maqsood Akhbar made 42 before Chris Taylor's unbeaten 56 steered Hemingbrough to a draw at 180-7.

Bridlington had a comfortable home win over Dringhouses, who lost by eight wickets after setting a target of 153-8 in which Bob Taylor made 35no and John Crowe 27. Hafeez Khalid made 55 and Brian Rudd an unbeaten 68 as Bridlington moved to 154-2.

Scarborough were denied outright victory when Crayke's last pair held out for a draw. George Rounthwaite with 51, Richard Brook 30 and Luke Van Kempen 25 were the principle contributors to Scarborough's 182-6.

Van Kempen then followed with 4-39 but Graeme Dawson defied the attack with 64 as Crayke replied with 151-9.

Two lowly sides met at Savile Park, where Hovingham emerged with the larger share of the spoils after posting a first innings score of 244-3 through Alistair Thorpe (89), Stuart Prest (71) and James Banks (49). Castleford then responded with 162-8 with Ben Smith (28) and Simon Tucker (26) frustrating the visiting bowlers.

Rowntrees recorded their first win of the season when they inflicted the seventh defeat on Harrogate II.

Ian Townsend made 39 and M Sedgley 37 for Harrogate but they struggled to cope with the bowling of Paul Horner (5-55) and Dave Whittle (3-24) and could only reach 126-9.

Sean Marshall led Rowntrees to a six-wicket win with an unbeaten 43.

Stamford Bridge maintained their place in the challenging pack when they had the best of the exchanges at Studley Royal. Andy Milner hit 66 and Stuart Boyle made 27 in Stamford's 194-9, while Rob Mackle took 3-36 and Andy Mackle 3-39 for the Royals. Rob Mackle then added 45 and Richard Nicholson 44 but Studley could only reach 178-7 as Graham Tipping took 3-64.

Updated: 09:26 Monday, June 07, 2004