OVINGTON recorded their first win in the first division of the Horwath Pulleyn Heselton York Vale Cricket League courtesy of an inspired piece of bowling by Ian Holmes.

Ovington posted a modest 129 with Bishopthorpe's Mike Cunningham returning figures of 5-31.

Not to be outdone Holmes ripped through the Bishops returning figures of 7-50.

Drax struggled against hosts North Duffield's accurate bowling with Keith Powell's 35 the only notable contribution in a total of 94. Drax waltzed through the North Duffield batting order with Kevin Brook and Barry Knight taking four wickets each to win comfortably.

League leaders Norwich Union breezed past Burn by 35 runs thanks to 86 from Simon Morgan and 6-73 by Gwaine Hogg.

In the battle for third place, Askham Bryan beat Westow with Mark Hampshire's 6-63 restricting Westow to a modest 136-9. Aussie Dean Palmer's 56 enabled Askham to complete the victory with eight overs to spare.

British Sugar posted a respectable total of 155-8 at Stockton and Hopgrove. Despite the best efforts of veteran Tony Kerrison's 56no the hosts fell 35 runs short.

Tollerton kept their position at the top of division two, after a scare at Wheldrake. The home side were restricted to 94-9 with only James McQuarrie making reaching double figures.

At one stage Tollerton were 15-4, but 23 from B Chambers and a quick-fire 41 from C Richardson saw the visitors home.

Kelfield lost ground in their chase for the championship when they lost for the second time this season against mid-table Hirst.

The closest game of the day was at Copmanthorpe where Thorpe Willoughby scored 162. John Cooke made 51 before Andy Northfield came into the bowling attack late on and took 6-32. Copmanthorpe found the tight attack of Dave Watson and Granville North difficult to get away, but 37 from Richard Hague and a quick 32 from Kevin Ryder enabled the home side to reach the target with one wicket left and one ball to spare.

Heworth are still looking for their second win of the season after a narrow loss to Thixendale, who won by two wickets with three overs to go. Heworth scored 166-5 of which John Bonarius scored 71 and P Flint chipped in with a half-century. The mainstay of the Thixendale reply came from R Johnson, who carried his bat for 84 with support from John Metcalfe.

Division Three leaders Burton Salmon won again thanks to a quick start and 72no from Colin Driscoll against Malton & Old Malton, who were never up with the run rate. Alistair Blacklee just missed his half-century for Malton and Davis took 6-37.

After 20 overs Woodhouse Grange had only scored 31 against an accurate University Staff attack, but amassed 140 in the next 20, J Stevenson hitting an unbeaten 59. Staff skipper Waites paced his innings, scoring 89, to give his side victory.

Huntington posted their highest score of the season thanks to Richard Hawker who carried his bat scoring 32, but Clifton Alliance had batting in depth and knocked off the runs with 15 overs to spare, the first three Clifton batsmen all scoring 30s.

Second-placed Stillingfleet scored 236 against Askham YPO on their small ground thanks to 83 from Chris Walker with supporting roles from Rob Murray and Richard Elcock. Askham Bryan YPO made a valiant attempt but ended 54 runs short with P Thornton and A Rodgers making good contributions.

Updated: 09:45 Thursday, July 24, 2003