HIRST Courtney batsman Brian Howard blasted his way into the HPH York Vale Cricket League record books.

He is believed to be the first man to have scored centuries in three successive innings, his 107 against Thixendale on Saturday following 100 against Stillingfleet and 114 against Welton & Brough.

He and fellow opener Phil Alford (67) put on 157 in the big win against Dale which keeps Hirst firmly at the top of division three.

John Littlewood (83no) guided Acomb to an eight-wicket victory against Sillingfleet, whose Phil Johnson hit 76.

Hemingbrough crushed Barmby Moor by ten wickets to tighten their grip on division one. Paul Smales (4-15) and Glenn Crouch (3-15) were the destroyers-in-chief as Moor were rolled over for 75.

The team immediately behind Hemingbrough, North Cave, were beaten by Wheldrake, whose 15-year-old Sam Ensor took 3-25.

Burn compiled 267-3 against winless Heworth thanks to Ed Clark (86), Lee Adamson (76) and Adam Prescott (50). Greg Sykes hit 95 for Heworth who lost by 73 runs.

Champions University of York Staff remain in the relegation zone after a narrow defeat against Bishopthorpe, who were propelled to victory by an unbroken 93-run stand in eight overs by Ian Holmes (59no) and John Green (30no). Uni lost batsman Suleman with a broken thumb and, despite Mike Dushieko’s 65, just came up short.

Copmanthorpe returned to wining ways after Darren Hughes (4-19) and Chris Hall (3-25) saw Clifton Alliance bowled out for 97.

Stockton & Hopgrove won the second division top-of-the-table clash with Ovington after a lightning 66 by Dan Fairclough, whose half-century came off just 23 balls.

Martyn Reynolds was out for 85 to the penultimate ball of Ben Johnson’s innings in the win over North Duffield after putting on 118 with Jamie Agnew (75).

Fulfordgate only needed 94 to beat Askham Bryan but lost their first four wickets for two runs and were eventually all out for 57. Zeshan Athar took 4-4 in 7.3 overs.

Spinner Ben Astin’s 5-52 was a feature of Kelfield’s victory against Westow, while Jeffrey Romans’ 6-29 saw Selby down Melbourne.

Stu Ross produced superb figures of 11-7-16-5 as Huntington successfully defended 116 against Wheldrake II in division four.

James Dawson junior (67) and James Dawson senior (5-27) were the driving forces behind Malton & Old Malton’s victory against Copmanthorpe, whose main resistance came from Paul Newton (85).

York RI’s promotion hopes were dented as they were skittled out for 58 by Burton Salmon, whose Vishnu Sadasivan led the attack with 4-18.

Spinners accounted for 12 of the 17 wickets to fall as Heworth II recorded their third win over Askham Bryan II this season.

Improving York are looking strong in division five as Ryan Waite (63no) and Deepak Selvaraj (60) starred in a nine-wicket thumping of Selby II.

Phil Batt’s unbeaten 96 was not sufficient to hold off Malton & Old Malton II, whose Mick Liversidge took 5-41.

Rich Horsman’s 79 included 70 in boundaries as Stockton & Hopgrove II recovered from 13-3 to easily beat Thorpe Willoughby II.


Performance of the week

Man of the moment Brian Howard (Hirst Courtney) whose 107 against Thixendale was his third division three century in a row.