DISPOSING of another title challenger, Haltwhistle are threatening to run away with things at the top of the table.

They opened up a healthy 17 point advantage by defeating second placed Hexham Leazes by six wickets, Halty maintaining their momentum as they push for a first championship since 2009.

There will be no immediate rematch as Wylam defeated Haltwhistle in a heated semi-final on Wednesday to book a place in Sunday’s KO Cup showdown, Leazes gunning for four titles on the bounce.

Billed as a vital game in the title run-in, Hexham elected to bat and got off to a fine start with 20 in the opening six overs through Ben Griffiths and Matt Joyce. But on song Joe Barber continues to be a thorn in opposing teams’ side, having Griffiths caught at cover by Ben Lloyd.

The breakthrough brought about the regular fall of wickets, Barber going on to finish with five wickets including two in two balls.

Struggling on 50-4, Raji Kingman showed some resistance and Hexham tried to keep their innings intact to deny their rivals a potential maximum only for John Armstrong to claim the final wicket of Scott Ferguson with the very last ball.

Haltwhistle‘s main men Barber and skipper Dan Parker again got them off to a flyer, Barber reaching his half century after just eight overs as they powered to 75 without loss.

Barber went the next over when lbw to Newton, with Parker joining him back in the pavilion with the score on 97 as Newton struck again.

While three more wickets fell, Haltwhistle weren’t really troubled and Ryan Bell‘s quick 40 not out saw them to all 12 points in the 30th over.

An excellent all-round team performance shot Stocksfield II back up to second, after a comfortable 106 run victors over an extremely young Benwell Hill III side.

Openers Matt Bewick and teenager Jonny Tobin inflicted the damage as they excelled again in that first wicket partnership, the red haired duo shooting their side to 135-0 as they approached 40 overs.

Both were claimed by Shaun Rushton in the same over and, with just two overs remaining, Stocksfield decided to go on the slog and they quickly went to 180-8.

Benwell offered very little resistance to Stocksfield’s young guns in reply, with the exception of Darshana Thiranga, as they were unable to reach triple figures.

All four Stocksfield bowlers were excellent, Ant Allen joined in the wickets by youngsters Chris Scandle (14), Paul Brown (16) and Luke Doneathy (12).

Wylam are level on points after failing to record maximum points in their hard earned 30 run success over a resilient Newton .

Last year‘s captain Alex Rayner continued his remarkable form with the bat as he neared his 100, his 290th run in the past four games.

Current skipper Mark Wilson went early, but there were good contributions across the board as they posted a challenging 200 plus total.

The bowling of Ben Duncan had Newton in trouble as they struggled to get away from him as he took the opening four wickets.

But, with opener Chris Wilkie impressing, Newton went through a stubborn spell before threatening to push the score close.

While they were shy of their target, they dug in to frustrate Wylam in their goal of bowling them all out.

It was a good day for the bowlers at a ’spongy‘ Haydon Bridge as the hosts beat Allendale in a low scoring affair.

Bridge opened but found runs difficult to come by, a combination of the tricky wicket and some superb bowling from Amit Sunda seeing them all out for just 69.

They had slumped to 28-6 but captain Graeme Pigg hung around and Tom Waugh fired two big sixes on his way to 23 to boost the total.

It was the same story for Allendale in their innings as they fell for a collective 50, only Corey Hyde looking likely to rack up any kind of score. Jamie Taylor’s bowling deserved more than the three wickets he claimed, while Tom Waugh and Ian Watson both proved difficult to get away from too.

With Joe Lonsdale turning the screw with four wickets, Stamfordham completed the double over Matfen Hall .

In a well contested encounter, Matfen got off to a steady start through Hamish Kennett and Ian Pilkington before a great catch from Guy Halbert off Richard Gardener saw the latter dismissed.

Young Tom Scott batted well throughout to push the scoring on and Matfen posted 118.

They were all out on the last ball as a mix up saw Aaron Tiffin run out by Alex Gray, the wickets shared around with Gardener and Graham Adamson with two each.

Stamfordham got off to a good start in reply through Alex Gray and Aamir Riaz until the latter went to a good catch by James D‘Arcy off Tiffin. But they were steady after that, good knocks from Gray, Halbert and Ian Donkin steering them home.

An improved batting display earned Prudhoe three points, but they were unable to pick up the win as they hosted Humshaugh .

They passed the 100 mark as they were put into bat first, the older heads of Gary Chamberlain and Gavin Howdon helping them along the way.

Nick Reid upped the ante for Humshaugh in reply, though, and his unbeaten half century earned them to their fourth win of the campaign.

He was aided by Hedley Renton and more latterly Steven Arnup with good knocks of their own.