IT’S as you were at the top of the Cumbria Cricket League with all three title contenders winning their matches.

Carlisle professional Michael Slack produced an immaculate all-round performance to help his side to an empathetic 91-run win in a rain-affected match at Whitehaven.

In a game reduced to 30-overs after early afternoon showers, Slack’s perfectly-paced 79, pressing the accelerator as the overs ticked down, underpinned a challenging total of 170.

He was helped by skipper Marc Brown who played the supporting role in a partnership worth 142 after Whitehaven’s Scottish paceman Sharyan Sharif removed Ben Davidson in the second over.

Whitehaven’s hopes were given an early lift when Chase Young came out fighting, making a belligerent 28.

But Slack followed up his good work with the bat by removing Chad Pearson and Sharif in successive balls.

Stephen Holiday briefly threatened in an aggressive 26, but three wickets for Henry Walker and a brace for debutant Stanley McAlindon effectively killed the game off before Slack returned to claim the final two scalps.

The win kept Carlisle in second place, six points behind leaders Furness before the teams meet in a table-topping showdown next Saturday.

Furness, for their part, stayed top with a five-wicket win at home to Millom in a low-scoring game.

Millom lost their first four wickets for only 23 and needed a fifth-wicket stand between Graham Dawson (27) and Michael Holmes (23) to get them moving, but they were eventually bowled out for 98.

Peter Lawson (2-9), Sachith Pathirana (3-29) and Mark Daly (3-37) shared the bowling honours for Furness.

The league leaders did not have it all their own way and lost five wickets in getting the runs needed in the 26th over.

Pathirana was 25 not out after opener Nathan Waterston had made 24 earlier in the innings.

Workington stay third, four points behind Carlisle and 10 behind leaders Furness, after they beat Dalton by seven wickets at the Valentine Ground.

The west Cumbrians won the toss and invited Dalton to bat, and it looked a good decision as they hit early trouble on 4-2 and 19-3 before a partnership of 50 between professional Lakshan Waduge (17) and skipper Liam Curwen steadied the ship.

But, when Curwen was run out for 53 Dalton were 90-6 and the tail did not wag, they folded to 108 all out in 42.5 overs.

Adam Chambers took the first five wickets to fall and finished his 12 overs with 5-33 while Simon Beare had 3-32 from 14.5 overs.

Workington’s innings started just as badly as Dalton’s and they were 3-2 before Kristian Moffat (17) helped re-build but when he was out the hosts were still only 37-3.

Then ex-pro Beare came in and smashed 46 not out from 33 deliveries, including three big sixes. Opener Grant Reid gave solid support with 28 not out as Workington got to 109-3 off 27.4 over.

Champions Cockermouth needed a lift and they got it with a comprehensive win over Cleator, the team that chased them hard for the title last year.

Put into bat Cleator lost half their side for 39 when opener Dave Watson (24) was fifth out.

Douglas Hughes (33no) rallied the cause but eventually ran out of partners as Cleator were bowled-out for 98.

Sam Sharp was Cockermouth’s bowling hero, taking 6-26 from 10.4 overs, backed-up by professional Kavishka Anjula (2-29) and Sam Thompson (2-15).

Cockermouth didn’t hang about and got to 99-2 after only 15 overs, led by Alex Grainger (47no) and Anjula (31no).

Buoyed by their Higson Cup win over Whitehaven last Monday, Egremont couldn’t take the form into their league game at Lindal Moor where they lost by 91 runs.

Lindal had plenty of runs from four of their top six batsmen with Dean Williams (54), Ryan Gilmour (46), Chris Scrogham (38) and Paul Wilcock (37) all making solid contributions. They reached 215-9 with Egremont professional Shikhar Mehta taking 4-100 from his 15 overs.

Opener Shaun Bostock made 24 but at 55-5 the Egremont innings failed to find lift-off and only a late stand of 46 for the ninth wicket between Jack Hodgson (32) and wicket-keeper Owen Thompson (22 no) got them over the three figure mark.

They were eventually bowled-out for 124 in the 35th over with home pro Janith De Silva taking 5-49, backed-up by John Atkinson (3-23).

Glen Weightman will be at Twickenham next weekend hoping to help Cumbria to the County rugby union Championship, but on Saturday he played a key role in Keswick’s six-wicket win at Wigton.

The hosts had made a solid enough start through Kieran Little (30) and Lewis Little (25) but when the latter was run out by Scott McGown the innings fell apart.

Weightman (5-34) and professional Geeth Kumara (3-33) were introduced into the attack and Wigton subsided to 115 all out in 36 overs. Andy Oliver (18) was the only other batsman to reach double figures.

Keswick lost four wickets cheaply but were carried through to victory on 117-4 in 27 overs by an unfinished partnership between Kumara (53no) and Weightman (22no).