Top three win as Cumbria League's Premier Division title race hots up

It’s also building-up to be a three-way battle to avoid the drop so plenty to play for over the next eight weeks.

Furness still lead the way, six points clear of Keswick with Cockermouth a further two points back in third.

At the bottom it’s Egremont on 36, Wigton on 38 and Cleator on 44, now into the second half of the season.

Furness were bowled-out for 159 in 43.5 overs by Whitehaven with Josh Foster, Jonathan Stewart, Terance Warde and Ethan Wright each taking two wickets. Gorge Smith (30) and Lewis Gribbin (27) did best with the bat for Furness.

Whitehaven always struggled to put together any significant partnerships and were dismissed for 116 in the 41st over. Kian Larmour (24) top-scored with South African pro Dominic Hendricks taking 5-16 in his ten overs.

Keswick had to battle hard for their three-wicket win at Workington despite dismissing their hosts for a modest 112.

They were struggling themselves at 45-5 but a match-winning stand of 51 between skipper Paul Hindmarch (35) and Finn Turnbull (18) edged them close enough for the job to be completed by the tail with 19 overs to spare.

Skipper Matthew Lowden (38) top-scored for Workington with Glen Weightman taking 5-29 for the visitors.

Top scorers on the day were Cockermouth who hit 347-3 at Sandair against Cleator as pro Shrikant Mundhe (96no), Matthew Sempill (93), Alex Grainger (58) and Gareth White (55) all enjoyed their time in the middle.

Cleator’s time in the middle was not so pleasant as they were dismissed in 18.4 overs for 97 as Ethan Hardie-Knight (4-16) and Grainger (4-27) did most of the damage.

In the battle to avoid relegation there were important wins for both Egremont and Wigton.

Egremont opted to bat first against Millom and they made 187 in 44.2 overs with Taran Marwah (75) and Mark Ponticelli (30) leading the way.

All seven bowlers took a wicket for Millon with Dec Tyson (3-19) doing best.

Millom lost half the side for 37 and although professional Nathan Waterston (48) held them together and the opener was eighth out they crumbled to 131 all out. Their slide down the table after a highly promising start to the season has been a concern.

In a fine spell Egremont skipper Coady Scott finished with 5-9 from just seven overs.

Wigton have had a worrying start to the season but they picked-up ten valuable points with a win by 27 runs at Dalton.

They had elected to bat first and would have been a bit concerned at reaching only 118 when they were dismissed in 41 overs. John Reed top-scored with 24 while home pro Lahiru Dilshan had 3-12 off 9.4 tight overs.

In the end, though, they had enough runs on the board as they bowled-out their hosts for 91 in 36.3 overs despite a battling 54 from Dilshan.

Pro Chris Hodgson took 4-26; Matthew Hodgson had 3-6 and Reed finished with 3-19 from his full ten overs stint.