It was a good day for Goole Town 1st XI at the top of Hunters York & District Senior League Division One as they extended their winning run to six matches whilst nearest rivals Welton and Woodhouse Grange both suffered defeats.

The leaders were involved in a low scoring game at home to Bolton Percy. Percy were put in to bat and the visitors were restricted to 112-9 with Aidan Coulbeck (4-30) picking up four early wickets, including two in three balls early in the innings, Ben Lamb (3-15) three, one of which was top scorer Tom Atkinson for 28 and Kevin Murphy (2-7) finishing things off with two at the end of the innings. Bolton Percy batted out their 48 overs and didn’t look like posting any sort of score as Goole’s bowlers were on top for the majority of the innings but Percy’s negative approach at the end when they could have pushed for quick runs left them stranded on 112-9. In reply Goole suffered a mini collapse when three wickets fell in the space of six runs from Anderson who helped reduce them to 51-4 with Ben Earle (9), Nottingham (0), Ollie Ounsley (0) and Kevin Murphy (5) all dismissed. The hero of Hornsea, Ben Shelton held firm with Scott Thorpe and managed a 40 run partnership to take Goole to 90-5 and with Shelton finishing unbeaten on 56 and Will O’Donnell hitting three fours in a 16 ball 17 a five wicket win was achieved to give Goole maximum points from the game. Shelton completed his second consecutive not out half-century and his third of the season in 94 balls with 9 fours hit along the way. Shelton’s consistency this year has been the highlight of Goole’s batting line up and has been a major factor in their position at the top of Division One.

Goole’s were helped this week with defeats for rivals Welton and Woodhouse Grange. Dringhouses pulled off the shock result of the day beating second placed Welton who had yet to lose a league match this season but were bowled out for 125 to lose by four wickets. Hornsea’s Richard Medforth’s took his second five wicket haul of the season to set up their victory at Woodhouse Grange who began the day in third but drop a place following a four-wicket defeat.

Division One

Team	P	W	WD	T	LD90	LD75	LD	C/A	L	BatP	BowlP	Pen	Pts
Goole Town CC	11	7	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	3	0	240
Welton CC	10	3	1	0	1	1	0	3	1	19	15	0	184
Driffield Town CC	10	4	0	0	0	2	0	2	2	17	13	0	178
Woodhouse Grange CC	10	3	1	0	0	1	0	4	1	12	15	0	176
Knaresborough CC	10	4	0	0	0	0	0	3	3	4	15	0	166
Hornsea CC	10	3	1	0	0	0	0	3	3	13	9	0	157
Carlton Towers CC	10	2	2	0	0	0	0	3	3	17	15	0	155
Harrogate CC	10	1	1	0	1	1	0	5	1	20	17	0	145
Bolton Percy CC	10	2	1	0	0	0	0	3	4	14	15	0	134
Clifton Alliance CC	10	1	2	0	0	0	0	2	5	24	24	0	132
Heworth CC	11	1	1	0	0	0	1	4	4	20	21	0	126
Dringhouses CC	10	1	0	0	0	2	0	3	4	9	14	0	90

2nd XI

Goole 2nd XI travelled to Heworth in York for their Division Three match on Saturday. Goole won the toss and elected to field and at drinks with the score on 75-1 with opener Ford looking dangerous on 52 Goole were a little concerned that this may not have been the best decision. After drinks Goole began to control the runs a little more and as a result the pressure began to build on the batsmen. Gibbins removed Ford for 73 in the 31st over and as Aitchison struck the over after Heworth were pegged back to 118-3. With the next 14 overs only going for 60 runs Goole knew that they had a good chance of gaining 30 points from the match. The wickets were shared between 15 year old Thomas Marritt who struck twice to take 2-27, Nat Aitchison 1-48, 13 year old Thomas Franks 1-13 and the evergreen Antony Gibbins who topped the wickets column with 3-36. Heworth’s total of 178-7 showed that Goole had bowled well in the second half of the innings and had given themselves a chance after a slightly indifferent first 20 overs of the innings.

Goole started well as has been the case this year with Gibbins and Franks posting 67 for the first wicket. Gibbins was well caught for 57 but Franks (14) and Guy Richardson (30) went well to keep Goole on track with the run chase. Franks was caught at mid-wicket just after drinks and Richardson was run out by skipper Neil Foster as Foster attempted a ‘kamikaze’ run to square leg, leaving Richardson stranded. Captain Foster made up for his mistake by guiding Goole to a win with a very nice 44 not out and he was ably assisted by Jakey Kennedy who finished the game 27 not out. Goole performed well in all departments in the match and all the players contributed to the win. The 30 points gained keeps Goole in second place in Division Three but with Castleford only managing a losing draw against third placed Acomb, Goole have closed the gap at the top to 12 points and could leapfrog their rivals with a win at home to Bishopthorpe on Saturday if Cas’ slip up again.

Goole wishes to thank it’s sponsors for the weekend, Townends Chartered Accountants and wish them all the success with their business.