Carlisle Cricket Club slumped to a first league defeat of the season as champions Cockermouth grabbed the points at Edenside.

The Cocks narrowed the gap between second and third place in the Cumbria Cricket League Premier Division to just 12 points.

After being asked to bat first, Cockermouth were quick to seize on some early wayward bowling as the home side struggled to find control.

Together, Matthew Sempill and skipper Alex Grainger put on 67 for the first wicket before Henry Walker made the breakthrough, snaffling a return catch from Sempill.

It didn’t get any easier for Carlisle, though, as Grainger and Greg Platten built on a solid start to add impetus to the innings before the visiting captain edged a Michael Slack delivery to Craig Manchester behind the stumps.

Platten continued to dominate the Edenside attack and his 69 from just 77 balls, including three sixes, helped the visitors finish on an imposing 233-6.

Carlisle’s best bowler once again was professional Slack who returned figures of 3-52 from 15 overs.

In response, Ben Davidson and Slack added 75 for the first wicket before Slack fell lbw to the finger spin of his Cumberland county colleague Sempill.

Although Davidson continued to anchor the innings, wickets fell at regular intervals, pushing up the asking rate.

An attacking flurry from the opener who, together with Walker, ran a five as Carlisle strived to stage a late assault proved insufficient.

For Cockermouth, spinners Sempill and Mark Middleton shared seven wickets, while Sri Lankan Kavishka Anjula picked up two.

Opener Davidson’s 84 from his team’s 194 was a personal highlight.

Furness now enjoy a 14-point advantage at the top after they beat Lindal Moor by 115 runs.

Professional Sachith Pathirana (67) and Scott Pearcey (79 not out) figured in a big stand of 115 for the sixth wicket.

At 120-5, they hadn’t been able to get away from their visitors after Lewis Gribbin (39) and Ryan Griffiths (35) had got out when looking set.

But the Pathirana / Pearcey partnership changed the game and they eventually finished on 276-6. Craig Crawford took 3-77.

Lindal had batsmen who got in but couldn’t build an innings with opener Ryan Gilmour (36) and professional Janith De Silva (26) the best examples.

They were eventually bowled out for 161 with Jordan Buchanan (4-59) and Garry Thompson (3-19) the most successful Furness bowlers.

Cleator professional Supeshala Jayathilake has really started to find his form. He followed up his maiden 50 with an unbeaten century at Workington. It helped set up a comfortable win, which had looked far from on earlier in the contest.

At 93-5, it seemed as though Workington were going to restrict them to a reasonably low score.

Only skipper Tom Sharpe (20) had made anything like a score.

But Jayathilake kept going with some audacious shots and reached 100 off the last ball of the innings. Doug Hughes (25) gave late support as the innings closed on 216-7.

Matt Lowden bowled another excellent spell of 15 overs to take 3-31.

Workington’s reply slumped to 47-7 off 21 overs before Adam Chambers and Ryan Clubley doubled the score. Chambers was out at 94 for 23. Clubley went on to make 47 and, eventually, Workington were all out for 127 off 36.1 overs.

Back from injury, David Blackwell took 4-28 and Adam Hodgson had 3-19.

Wigton won the battle with Whitehaven, the two sides above rock bottom Egremont.

It was a tight game, too, as Wigton got home by two wickets and nine overs to spare.

Skipper Nico Watt (3-39) and professional Chris Hodgson (3-41) helped bowl out their hosts for 141. Lewis Keeler top-scored with 26 and there were 24 extras.

Wigton struggled in response and only Watt (49) looked comfortable but they eventually squeezed home. Professional Safyaan Sharif took 4-58 and Lee Norman had 3-39 for Whitehaven.

Keswick’s good run of form ended at Millom where they lost by 86 runs after being bowled out for 171.

Millom, a strong side on their own pitch, had set an imposing target from their 50 overs of 257-6.

Bottom side Egremont lost again but put in a gritty display against Dalton before going down by two wickets.