SETTLE'S bid to retain their Ribblesdale League Senior Section title suffered a setback when they slid to only their second defeat of the season.

Whalley beat them by 85 runs and that has enabled Oswaldtwistle Immanuel to close to within one point of them after they recorded a 137-run win over Earby.

Settle were sent spinning by Whalley's Australian leggie Joel Blain.

He opened the bowling and wreaked havoc as he returned the impressive figures of 7-59.

Sam Sweeney (3-47) shared the new ball and the pair quickly reduced the champions to 26-4.

Tom Davidson tried to stop the rot with a battling 45 while Robbie Davidson (19) and Sadrian Ward (17) at least enabled Settle to take their score into three figures before finally being all out for 111.

Whalley made 196 when they batted first with Declan Bailey making 64 against a bowling attack in which the impressive Josh Mullinder (5-38) and Ward (3-30) did the bulk of the work.

Lowly Barnoldswick picked up only their third victory of the season as they saw off Baxenden by four wickets.

The win was set up by the bowling of Sajid Akhtar (5-60) and Chaiana De Silva (4-39) who combined to dismiss Baxenden for 171. Matthew Griffin top scored with 46.

De Silva put the seal on a good individual performance when he made 58 to help his side reach their target

Earby remain rooted to the bottom of Section B after their loss against Oswaldtwistle. Half-centuries from Oliver Clare (77) and Daniel Metcalfe (50) enabled the title chases to make 255-5.

Earby laboured to 118-9 in reply with Nathan Hodge (31) proving to be their top scorer. Niall Hayes (5-47) and Shabhan Khajura (3-12) were the best Oswaldtwistle bowlers.

Barnoldswick Seconds came out on top in their Division One battle with Settle. Shazad Ali proved to be their star turn as he made 44 in their total of 218 and followed up with 6-14 as Settle were all out for 192.

The Marshfield side lost their last four wickets for five runs as they failed to capitalise on a fine knock of 102 from Benjamin Hulse, an innings containing 10 fours. Daniel Strickland added 34 before the Settle innings fell away.

Asad Latif (51) and James Alcock (35) backed up the efforts of Ali in the Barnoldswick innings, while Joseph Handy (3-64) proved to be the best Settle bowler.