CHAMPIONSHIP-CHASING York Cricket Club crashed to a defeat even more sizeable than surprising when Barnsley enjoyed an eight-wicket success on their own Shaw Lane ground.

The lone crumb of comfort for York was that title rivals Scarborough only gleaned one point from their match with Sheffield Collegiate, who amassed a huge score of 292-5 which Scarborough could not match.

Overall, York maintain a seven-points lead over Scarborough, but the Collegiate result and Castleford's victory over Hull means that the top placings are getting congested, especially as the latter two outfits have games in hand.

York looked to be heading for a sound start as they saw off the Barnsley speedsters for only the loss of Stephen Piercy.

Rich Wilkinson's introduction to the attack completely changed the scene, so that Simon Mason was the only York batsman to hit double figures until Kiwi Jeetan Patel dug in later in the innings.

Wilkinson took four wickets in his first 20 deliveries, while Indian overseas player, Kulbushan, bowled a tight spell at the other end. These two steadily worked their way through the rest of the York innings.

With their in-depth range of quality spinners York might have taken heart from Wilkinson's success with off-spin, but former Yorkshire colt mark Broadhurst scored 61 in 70 minutes with seven fours and a six.

York were never in the hunt and a couple of late victims for leg-spinner Tom Pringle proved to be York's only consolation.

Next Saturday's visit to Clifton Park of another lowly side, Appleby-Frodingham, now assumes even greater significance.

Two Yorkshire League batsmen reached a thousand runs, while, Harrogate CC's opener, John Inglis equalled former York skipper, Ian Dews' 1995 record of three centuries in successive weeks. Inglis was run out on 122.

Clint Heron's ten runs for Scarborough yesterday saw the Aussie import reach four figures at an average of 83.3 while Pakistani, Mohamed Zaman scored 93 for Driffield against Doncaster to reach his 1,000.

Updated: 11:22 Monday, August 04, 2003