SETTLE’S cricketers continued their winning form with both teams holding onto third place in their leagues.

Barnoldswick firsts elected to bat on their home patch but came up against Tom Davidson who bagged his second five-wicket haul in a row (5-38) while pro Imran Khalid came back to haunt his former club by taking 4-28.

Barlick pro Louis Delport (19) and Shaun Lemon (15) were the only batsmen in double figures as the side struggled to 103 all out.

The visitors made short work of the Barlick attack, knocking off the runs in 31 overs. Tom Davidson hit 27 at a run a ball while Khalid rubbed salt in the wounds with an unbeaten 40, in harness with Robbie Davidson (26no) as Settle romped home by eight wickets.

Settle seconds entertained Edenfield who posted a challenging 159-9 with catches going down, though Jason Paul (4-26) was back in spinning action.

The hosts’ reply was an unbroken run of solid scores as John Davidson (13), John Tarbox (31), William Booth (30) and Kieren Ashley (22no) supported a dashing half-century from Josh Mullinder to ensure a six-wicket victory.

Glorious sunshine greeted Earby when they arrived at Brinscall, a must win game for Earby as the pack in the second tier were closing the gap.

Liam Winstanley the home team captain won the toss and chose to take first knock. An hour later he may well have changed that decision. Phil Lowe and Stuart Parker opened against the Earby skipper Richard Craddock, the visiting skipper struck second delivery having Lowe caught behind by Matt Garner. In his second over Craddock got the home professional Zandre Cloete to play a false shot and Earby's paid man Dave Crotty took the catch. Clarkson was bowling his usual tight spell at the other end and Craddock added to his tally, first ball of his third over, Parker bowled all ends up for 2. Brinscall were in trouble at 10 for 3. Winstanley and his experienced wicket keeper Paul Chaplin knew they had to try and dig in to make any sort of score but Clarkson determined not to be left out clean bowled Chaplin and trapped the new batsman Howarth in front three balls later. 18 for 5 and Earby must have thought it would be over and done with before tea. In his fifth over Iain Clarkson took his third, clean bowling Ian Chaplin for nought. Winstanley was still hanging in there until on unlucky 13 Craddock got him caught by Clarkson, 32 for seven swiftly became 38 for eight when Craddock trapped Lee Burgess LBW for two. Young James McVittie, batting at eight but looking more comfortable than his predecessors, along with Andrew Whittle started to put together a little revival. Pro Crotty replaced Clarkson and Chris Walton had a single over, Ian White had two but this lower order pair took the fight to the visitors and they added 46 valuable runs before the returning Skipper got the wicket of McVittie for 26. That left one wicket to get, Crotty at last got his reward forcing Whittle into a mistake, caught in the deep by Chris Walton. Brinscall had managed 94 all out, it could have been a whole lot worse. Craddock finished with figures of six for 36, Clarkson three for 17 and Crotty the other wicket.

As Brinscall had shown, this was not the easiest track to score on, Earby's usual opening pair certainly didn't have it their own way, Lee Burgess trapped Walton LBW for a duck, Matt Wilson attacked as he does and hit three fours before Ian Chaplin had him caught by the home team professional Cloete for 12. This brought Crotty and Matt Haines together in the middle, Haines lasted only four deliveries before Burgess again trapped the batsman infront LBW. That put Earby on a worrying 15 for 3. Crotty was joined by his former Nelson team mate Danny Kegg, the pair defended and defended, Crotty hit three fours and once again went into defence mode. Chaplin was replaced in the attack by Martin Jackson and it was he that broke through, he got Dave Crotty (15) to play a false shot and push it back for a simple caught and bowled. Kegg was joined by his Skipper, Craddock had a look at a few deliveries and clearly couldn't see what the fuss was about, he crashed 14 off Jackson's 5th over which saw him removed from the attack to be replaced by McVittie, that made no difference, he continued to score heavily quickly taking the score to 73 for four in the 22nd over. Kegg joined in and hit a couple of fours but it was Craddock who took 20 off McVittie's two overs and won the game in the 24th over. Craddock scoring 43 off 25 deliveries, Kegg not out 21 off a patient 49 balls. Burgess the only real threat with two for 18 off 11 overs. Maximum points for Earby.