THORNTON, who have led the Spenser Wilson Halifax League Premier Division for all but four weeks of the season, have finished as runners-up by one point!

Booth, who won the previous week when Thornton's match was washed out, thus retained their title by the slimmest of margins.

Both teams gained 12 points in their final fixtures, with Thornton quickly winning at relegated Southowram to keep the pressure on the Luddenden team.

Thornton dismissed the relegated Ashday Lane outfit for a meagre 87 as Ross Parr claimed 6-45 to be followed by a quickfire 61 not out from Joshua Hutchinson, obviously eager to cross to Grassy Bottom to watch Triangle v Booth.

While Triangle had promised to make it a very difficult match, clearly one visiting player had not read that script.

Steven Senior not only held the Booth innings together but his 149 out of a 264 total, proved to be match and title winning.

Triangle’s response got off to a poor start, and when the in-form Christian Silkstone was dismissed for only four, the writing was on the scoreboard wall as it showed 53-4.

Despite a rally from Daniel Crosland (51) and Carl Fletcher (57), once that duo were back in the pavilion the watching Thornton contingent knew that their title hopes had disappeared with them, unfortunately blown away by the previous week’s weather.

Booth won by 61 runs, with Richard Laycock having the final word with by taking the last two wickets in his 6-47.

Elsewhere SBCI were in demob mode, capitulating to visitors Copley for only 68.

Oliver Thorpe finished his season in style with 51 and 5-34, while Alex Blagborough (55) also hit a half-century as Copley won by 173 runs to finish seventh, after struggling badly in the early part of the season. Oxenhope finished their season in some style, hitting 333-9 at Mytholmroyd, with half-centuries from Joseph Ousey (93) and Lewis Hopkinson (60) to ensure a big improvement on 2017 and leave their hosts glad of the points earned earlier in the season.

The visitors then used ten bowlers as Royd were dismissed for 144.

The mid-table match between hosts Sowerby St Peter’s and Shelf Northowram Hedge Top went the way of the home team, due in the main to Matthew Hoyle finishing his season in some style with a cracking innings of 165, and that batting at No 5, as he just made the list of first XI top-ten batting performances of the season.

A target of 285 proved too much for the visitors, who were bowled out 81 runs short, despite the efforts of Oliver Hemingway (57) and Harry Talbot (50) as Patrick Lennon took 5-39.

The last match of the season at Bridgeholme, where Warley were visiting, became a victim of the weather that was much worse further down the Calder Valley – at least the award-winning Bridgeholme blooms didn’t need watering!

The final promotion place to be decided came in the Second Division, and what a narrow squeak that was as Upper Hopton replicated Booth’s one-point margin to leave Luddendenfoot contemplating another season in the bottom tier.

The Foot had done all it could at Low Moor HT, claiming 11 points – a maximum would have made no difference as Hopton led that statistic by two wins.

Low Moor scored 118-9 in a stonewalling 45 overs, with Thomas Hosker’s figures of 12-6-18-5 rather proving the point.

As did the Foot as they took less than 20 overs to claim a win with Lee Broadbent ensuring victory with his 59 not out.

All eyes and electronic gadgets then turned to Stainland, where Upper Hopton were entertaining Leymoor - and what an intriguing match ensued.

The nomadic Mirfield team scored 171, with no batsman reaching 40 as Pierce Walker claimed 4-31.

The target for Leymoor was certainly attainable, but, more importantly for Hopton, could they claim the two bowling points they needed to clinch promotion?

As the skies darkened, they were forced to employ their slow bowlers and eventually it was Jack Stephenson (4-40) who took the all-important seventh wicket – with Leymoor only needing nine runs to win!

One wicket and four runs later, the umpires called a halt to proceedings – Hopton in the First Division by the skin of their teeth.

Elsewhere Outlane finished their up-and-down season in style, beating Bradley & Colnebridge by 48 runs, despite the visitors’ opener Istiaq Hussain (102) scoring a fine century.

Mosan Raza was man-of-the match as he scored 50 and took 4-18 for the home team.

Champions Mount finished their season with a 120-run home win against Greetland, with Anees Rawat scoring 102 not out batting at No 5 and Fakir Laher and Ismail Mayat having identical returns of 4-28. Finally, as at Eastwood, the Upper Calder Valley weather caused the abandonment of Old Town’s match versus Cullingworth.