Michael Kitson did his best to derail the Drakes Premiership title bid of Delph & Dobcross, but Skelmanthorpe came up short in an entertaining battle at Huddersfield Road.

Leaders Delph posted 247 thanks to solid knocks from Greg Buckley with 49, Shree Goswami 32 and Nathan Jones 36.

They had to work hard against nagging bowling from Shahzada Khan, who claimed four for 22 and Amar Rashid, who returned three for 76.

Rashid then hit 53 in the Skelmanthorpe reply (five fours and three sixes) and Kitson blasted 82 off 87 deliveries, including nine fours and four sixes, to keep them nicely in the hunt.

But Delph hit back with a late flurry of wickets, Shakir Muhammad taking five for 55 as Skelmanthorpe were dismissed for 222, taking a point.

Hoylandswaine kept up their chase with a fine three-wicket victory at Barkisland, where SP Singh finished 53 not out.

Alex Scholefield finished unbeaten but two short of a century as Barkisland totalled 234-6, Seth Oddy, Gary Chirimuuta and Matt Steers all making solid contributions – Iain Wardlaw taking three for 60.

Rijnier Coetzer took three wickets for the home side, but knocks of 33 from Ben Potter and 30 by Gharib Nawaz set up the platform for Singh to take Swaine to victory.

Golcar were at it again, moving within a point of Shepley with a terrific victory against them at Swallow Lane.

Craig Ruscoe hit 62 and Louis Aspeling 54 as Golcar totalled 210-9, which was revised to 186 because of interruptions by bad weather.

Despite 86 from Tom Denton and 27 from Dan Wood, Shepley were dismissed five runs short thanks to a five for 40 return from home skipper Steve Whitwam.

The other top-flight games finished two points apiece.

Cawthorne were 149-1 (Iqbal Khan 71no, and Ben Simpson 63) at home to Elland when rain forced an end.

Tom MacRury was 78 not out and skipper James Noble 57 not out as Scholes reached 143-0 against Armitage Bridge at Chapelgate while Kirkburton, at home to bottom club Honley, were 138-2 with Toby Booth on 49 not out.

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Rastrick are setting the pace in the Jedi Sports Championship after a three-wicket win at Slaithwaite.

The home side were sent back for 141 despite 57 from Daniel Rushworth as Oliver Pearson, Wasim Javed and Mitchell McCoach all picked up three victims for Rastrick.

Jacob Waterson then hit 35 as the visitors got home in 43.2 overs.

All the Cedar Court Conference matches finished two points each after rain.