The Upper Airedale Junior League's Keighley Cup2000 Under-17 League championship race is hotting up, with Embsay and West End locked together at the top.

Their meeting 24 hours after the cup final might provide an answer as to its ultimate destination.

Embsay had little difficulty in taking the points against bottom side Gargrave, who are now within a whisker of relegation.

Once again, the Embsay stars were Chris Bowker and Lloyd Davies. West End were run much closer by Cononley, who also remain in danger. Owen Palmer was the West End hero in the ten-run win.

Third-placed Upper Wharfedale had an easy win over Oakworth, whose recent good run was halted with a bump.

Harry Eccleshall and Dan Benson flayed the Oakworth bowling and fielders to all parts. Youngster Jake Parkinson finished off the Oaks in style with 5-8. Sutton and Skipton fought out the week’s thriller in a 350-run aggregate match.

Jonny Wilkinson and Amjid Hussain each registered 51, and with Luke Chapman making 43, a mammoth 177-2 was posted by Sutton.

Skipton fought like tigers, with skipper Keir Nelson (54) leading from the front.

The dismissal of Patrick Martin for 28 was perhaps the telling blow, leaving Sam Baldwin on 37 not out and Skipton just four runs adrift.

Denholme’s 84 was engineer-ed for Oxenhope largely by Jack Barker (5-18) and the back-up of 3-4 from Matthew Moore.

Dynamoes battled hard with the ball, restricting the normally fluent Oxenhope, and it wasn’t until Barker smashed a six and a four with three balls left that the divisional leaders achieved a hard-won victory.

Steeton had Pendle Forest all out for 102. Three wickets each for Daniel Hanson and Charlotte Boulton did the trick.

Hanson completed a great match with 43, to go with Jake Hill’s 40 and a 12.1-over win by eight wickets.

Cup semi-finalists Glusburn scored a useful 129-5, Jack Roberts contributing 42 at Haworth.

The Bronte boys were in scintillating form, though, with Aaron Putko (51) and James Reynoldson (46) judging their riposte to perfection to take the points with five balls in hand. Bingley Congs’ outside chances of promotion were boosted with a 31-run win over Ingrow.

Alex Bradbury (52) was the cornerstone of a solid 140-6 and the reply ended at 109-9 after 3-21 from Bradbury completed his night.

Harry Greenhalgh had 3-29, while keeper Jason Roberts made 37, along with 31 for Asad Hussain. Now Oxenhope require just one point to be certain of promotion.

Oxenhope, who are second in the Brook Taverner Under-13 League, travelled to East Lancashire and took early wickets at Pendle Forest.

But the hosts were rescued by Harry Stanworth (29), who dragged them to a respectable 98-6.

Led by opener Josh Ferguson (27) and Connor Mahon (25), Oxenhope cruised to victory in 15 overs on 101-3. The pressure is now on Oakworth, who remain two points clear.

Bolton Abbey’s long sojourn to Wilsden was in vain. Their 55 owed a great debt to Jonathan Markham (27).

The bowling of Sam Holdsworth was top notch and his 3-4 headed an impressive attack. Sam Murphy (27) led his Wilsden troops to 56-2 in just 9.3 overs.

Entertaining Embsay proved a rapid affair for Haworth, who were skittled for 41 in 14 overs, Samual Arkwright (4-3) and Elliot Stockton (3-1) proving difficult to handle.

‘Test’ man Morgan Davies unleashed three sixes, and his 28 and the win amazingly came up in only 3.3 overs.

The victory helped Embsay leap-frog Settle into second place, although the Ribblesdale side have two matches in hand.

Ingrow’s Tom Bradley fell one short of a retirement but his team-mates backed his score up well and they reached 103-7.

Promotion battlers Settle found the Ingrow attack a little too acc-urate and their knock finished at 91-9, with 25 for Hugh Francmanis.

In their quest for an unprecedented third consecutive CartaSport Under-11 League championship, Oxenhope struck top bowling and batting form at lowly Bradley.

The South Craven boys struggled to 179-7, with just 35 runs scored. By contrast, Oxenhope’s ‘power play’ had Matt Fleetwood on 20 and Tom Mawer with 18 in 280-1.

Also challenging were Settle, who visited another contender Cullingworth Cobras in a big game.

Cobras had three batsmen in double figures but lost nine wickets to an impressive Dales attack, and 210-9 would be difficult to defend without a similar bowling performance.

The Cobras did take four wickets but Ryan Hewitt (19) and Adam Strickland (16) propelled the Settle tally to 256-4.