Dunnington looking over their shoulder as Queens close in

While the York club were left frustrated by the wintry weather, which prevented them travelling to Heaton, Queens cut Dunnington’s lead to nine points with a 14-7 win at Hallamshire.

At the same time, the Halifax side dented Hallamshire’s title chances and leapfrogged over the Sheffield outfit into second place.

All three sides now have the same record after 12 matches of nine wins and three losses, with Dunnington on 187 points, Queens 178 and Hallamshire 176.

The Sheffield team’s defeat was their first in six matches and came via wins for Patrick Rooney (3/0), Matt Sidaway (3/0) and Connor Sheen (3/1) over Mike Pearson, Jack Allcock and Dan Lawrence at two, three and four.

Mark Fuller’s and Rahul Bansal’s straight-games successes against James Earles and Daniel Bray at the top and bottom of the order were therefore in vain.

Meanwhile, Chapel Allerton strengthened their grip on fourth spot with a 17-6 victory at seventh-placed Abbeydale.

The Leeds team’s fourth triumph in a row was achieved with wins from newly-crowned London Under-23 Open champion Declan James (3/1), Declan Christie (3/0), Niall McKinnon (3/2) and Adam Wellstead (3/0) over Adam Turner, Nick Wall, Oli Turner and Sam Watts. Neil Guirey prevented a clean sweep by beating Ian Chappell in straight games.

Wednesday night’s other match finished in a 16-9 victory for Pontefract at Hull and East Riding, lifting the South Yorkshire club into sixth spot and leaving Hull and ER in ninth.

Bottom club Pontefract seconds’ home match with Barnsley was also called off because of difficult travelling conditions caused by the weather.