THERE were several surprise results in the latest round of Pilmoor Evening Cricket League fixtures with leaders Sheriff Hutton Bridge crashing by ten wickets at home to Crayke.

Second division leaders Huby also lost at home to Clifton Alliance.

SHB suffered their first reverse of the campaign after Steve Crowder (36) and Nick Scaling (20) were the main contributors to their total of 112-7. The innings was held in check by Clive Baker (3-14) with support from Tony Raper (2-30).

Peter Carr then led Crayke's reply with an unbeaten 78, A Gutteridge supported with 28no and Crayke reached their target at 114-0 with an over to spare.

The closest game in the first division was at Newburgh, where the home side batted first against Thirsk and made 117- 4. Rob Proudley was top scorer with 50, while James Banks made 32.

None of the Thirsk batsmen made a real score but their innings was helped along by an incredible 35 extras and eventually they claimed a last-ball victory at 118-8. Jason Sargent (2-16) and Stuart Pierse (3-26) had decent returns for the hosts.

Stillington batted first at Sessay with J Hartley (22), S Dissanayake (52) and D Whitwell (21) among the runs as they reached 118-3. Steve Frare led Sessay's reply with an unbeaten 71 and Mike Megson supported with 30 as Sessay took the spoils at 119-2.

Easingwold moved into second place when they overcame struggling Alne.

Richard Jones made an unbeaten 49, Paul Skilbeck 36 and Richard Skilbeck 28 as they totally 135-4. Stuart Morley (31), Tom Ryder (30) and Bruce Jackson (24no) tried hard to keep Alne in the hunt, but they closed on 114-4 with Dan Copeland claiming 2-20 for Easingwold.

In the second division, Huby lost their first game of the season when they went down to Clifton Alliance. Paul Lister made 20 and Chris Cundall 20no as they reached 103-4, veteran Bob Taylor having the best return for Clifton with 3-27.

Alliance made a wining reply for 104-1, Paul Thorpe making 36 and A Barton 35no.

Raskelf had a welcome win when they took on Rowntrees, who made 95-6, with Tony Thompson top scoring on 37.

Joseph Thornton (3-12) had the best return for Raskelf, who were made to work hard in reply as D Whittle (3-19) made in-roads into their batting. But the efforts of Ross Hardy (21) and Chris Richardson (20) were enough to tilt matters Raskelf's way and they took the points at 98-7.

Sheriff Hutton took advantage of Rowntrees' slip to move into second place by beating Helperby, who could only muster 59-8 with Guy Faith claiming 2-12 and Andy Batley 2-16. Sheriff's winning reply was 60-3, J Hardy (2-33) claiming some consolation for Helperby.

Updated: 09:37 Wednesday, June 25, 2003