DISMISSING five of Matfen Hall’s six opening batsmen for ducks, Haltwhistle moved a step closer to getting their hands on the league title.

Success at Stamfordham on Saturday means the championship is theirs after the 12 points edged them a further two ahead of second spot.

Putting Matfen into bat first, opening bowlers Joe Barber and Phil Thompson got the frontrunners off to an electric start as they sent five Hall batters packing without scoring.

Barber ended with six wickets and Thompson three, with Ejaz Ahmed claiming the last wicket to bowl Matfen out for a below par 46, the biggest contribution to the total coming from Ross Colesby as the only batsman to make double figures.

Tea was skipped as both teams wanted a quick turn around, and young Aaron Tiffin proved deadly with the ball for Matfen as he continued his impressive form.

A short ball enticed Dan Parker to go for the hook only to top edge it to keeper Alex Pearse.

In almost a carbon copy, Tiffin then had Halty‘s fellow danger man Barber caught behind.

While Pearse made it three catches to dismiss Ben Lloyd from a Hamish Kennett delivery, Graeme Lee stood strong to return Halty to winning ways after losing to Allendale last time out.

Hexham Leazes‘ slow bowlers caused great problems for Benwell Hill III as they crashed out in their nine wicket defeat.

Paul Newton and Andrew McCormick both returned figures of 3-14 as they punished a poor batting display by hosts Benwell.

The covers at Riding Mill had kept the wicket dry after overnight rain, but the home side struggled to get going with Scott Ferguson bowling a tight line to limit the scoring.

Not finding any rhythm throughout their sluggish innings, they had no answer to the slow deliveries from Newton and McCormick as they cleaned up the tail by sharing six wickets.

With such a low score to go for, Leazes were off to a flyer through captain Ben Griffiths and Ben Thompson.

When Thompson departed to a catch from David Ladd from some good bowling from Will Archbold, Griffiths and Matt Joyce decided to run each shot as dark clouds loomed.

And they were scoring at a run a ball as they brought the game to its conclusion not long after passing the 20 over stage.

With bowlers stealing the limelight throughout the league, Haydon Bridge‘s excellent pairing of Jamie Taylor and Tom Waugh again excelled to keep their side in with a shout of the runners-up spot.

The duo were paired together to remove Newton in the comfortable 72 run triumph, Taylor rewarded with five wickets after being frustrated with few wickets despite excellent bowling in recent weeks.

The bowlers were backed up by two great catches, Graeme Pigg keeping hold of Dinak Rawlley’s rocket to gully and 13-year-old Liam Stephenson diving back on the run to dismiss Hunt.

Andy Jones batted well and hit a few sixes but lacked any partners as Taylor and Waugh were thrown together to bring things to an end within 31 overs.

Bridge successfully defended an innings of 165 on a wet wicket, openers Chris Welton and Pigg making up most of the runs as they batted well once they worked out how to play the conditions.

Their replacements weren’t able to read the deliveries as well, but the opening pair had done enough.

Stocksfield II remain narrowly ahead of in-form Bridge as they too picked up a good win, Allendale unable to pose a threat in reply.

Opening, Stocksfield suffered an early scare with two early wickets but Chris Patterson batted well to help the score on.

While wickets fell quite regularly, a superb innings from Alastair Thirlwell put them back on track for a good score and they finished on 213 despite Amit Sunda claiming four wickets.

Also chipping in were teenagers Luke Doneathy and James Watson, with Paul Watson and Tom Hutton making good contributions later in the pecking order too.

Fearing early evening rain could scupper their chances, Stocksfield quickened up their bowling and the wicket of danger man Tim Raglan proved vital.

Brother Jack went cheaply straight after and, while there were steady contributions thereafter, the wickets were shared around and Allendale were unable to make it five wins on the bounce.

James Watson proved particularly difficult to get away from as he claimed two wickets at the expense of just six runs, while he was well supported elsewhere.

Although unable to gain maximum points, Wylam remain in pole position to claim second spot after they came away from Humshaugh with the spoils.

Humshaugh were given a good start by captain Allan Murray and Nick Reid but the hosts were unable to build on it, although Ed Crawford provided some resistance midway through the order.

The home side had to contend with some good deliveries and Jonny Greenwood continued to impress in his step up from the second team, with Ben Duncan also difficult to score against.

Wylam lost David Teasdale early on in their reply, but they were soon ahead of the required run rate thanks to stand-in skipper Alex Rayner and Marc Heslop.

Their partnership put Wylam in a commanding position, and useful contributions from Greenwood and Phil Moyston saw them to the victory.

With half centuries from both Guy Halbert and Aamir Riaz, Stamfordham inflicted Prudhoe‘s latest defeat on them.

But the already-relegated away side again prevented their opponents from picking up maximum points, defending their wickets well to deny Stamfordham jumping ahead in the battle with Newton to finish in the top half of the table.

Halbert and Richard Gardener saw Stamfordham to a good start, but change bowler Shaun Sagar took three quick wickets to give his side hope.

But it only paired Riaz together with opener Halbert and they both passed their half centuries to crank the pressure on Prudhoe.

It looked like it was going to be a short innings as Prudhoe lost two men early on, but the experienced Gavin Howdon had other plans and he defended well before becoming more expansive to end with a half ton of his own.

Sagar made it a good day all round personally by making it into his 20s, and there was other assistance from his teammates as they managed to see out all 42 overs even if they were a long way off their target.

l Medomsley have drawn home advantage for Monday’s T20 Final against Mitford, with a 2.30pm start.