It’s double trouble for Birstall in rehearsal

Ed hit an unbeaten half century and bagged 4-24 and Marcus chipped in with 47 to keep Methley three points clear of closest rivals Townville, who won by 62 runs at Scholes.

Townville’s Conor Harvey smashed an unbeaten 65 off 36 balls and snapped up 4-23.

Matthew Jordan (118) and David Toft (51) shared a 127-run stand and Johannes Bothma struck 57 and claimed 4-27 as Wakefield Thornes maintained their title challenge by beating Hopton Mills whose scoring was led by Sufyan Patel (51) and Andrew Grey (42).

Arkam Asif’s unbeaten 65 helped Altofts recover from 84-6 to post 166-8 against Wrenthorpe who were toppled for 155 by Brent Law (5-25) and Harry Clewett 
(3-39), despite Joe Ellis’ 56.

Tim Orrell (104) and Yasir Ali (84) put on 171 as Mirfield Parish Cavaliers piled up 319 against Carlton who managed only 159 in reply.

Jean Strydom’s 96 was in vain for bottom team Hunslet Nelson, who fell 12 runs short of Ossett’s 234-4 that featured half-centuries by Shoaib Latif and Gavin Goodlad and 45 from John Sadler.

Batley are strong favourites for the Championship title after increasing their lead to 11 points by snatching a two-run win at Liversedge in a top of the table clash.

Batley recovered from 98-8 to finish on 168 thanks to a ninth-wicket stand of 66 between Naik Zada (34) and Mohammad Hafeez (29no). In reply, Liversedge were all out for 166 when their last two batsmen Nicholas Richardson and Connor Rowlands were both trapped leg before by Tariq Hussain (4-26) off successive deliveries.