Put in on a damp wicket, Booth paced their innings superbly to finish on a healthy 267 for 3. Young Laycock took particular liking to Bradford League veteran, Phil 'The Power' Taylor.

Like Hebden Bridge this week, Taylor looked decidedly short of juice as Laycock slapped him out of the ground for six of his nine sixes in a majestic knock.

Skipper Jim Mosley chipped-in with a chanceless 102 not out.

Young Richard has grown in stature this season and is developing into a high-class all rounder. His knock combined some Goweresque flicks and drives plus some effortless big hitting. We can only be grateful that the ECB's daft restrictions to his bowling are not applied to his batting, otherwise we would have been robbed of one of the knocks of the summer.

In reply, Northowram gave it their best with wicketkeeper Chris Metcalf scoring a remarkable hundred himself. A brilliant combination of invention, impudence, and bold hitting took him to three figures. But with wickets falling at the other end it was left to a swashbuckling 83 from Jon Beecham to get the target in range. But his dismissal meant the Rams needed eight from the last over.

Young Sam Gardner stepped up and hooked Laycock for a huge six, but then agonisingly chipped straight to waiting hands of Wajid Ali, who gleefully accepted the catch to give Booth ten points.

Mytholmroyd bounced back from their defeat at the hands of basement club Bradshaw the previous week to beat SBCI by seven wickets.

The home batsmen made a solid, if unspectacular, start in a match reduced to 35 overs by rain until Robert Cole broke the partnership.

Shahid Rashid, 3 for 46, and Cole, 3 for 47, then ran through the batting at one end while Gideon Foster bowled unchanged to take 2 for 47.

SBCI's scorecard was similarly weighted as opener John Summercscales hit 50 of their 133 for 9 total.

Scott Harris, 21, and David Blanch, 14, gave Mytholmroyd a good start but both fell to Benson and then Summerscales had Zahid Mahmood snapped for 22 leaving them some work still to do.

However, with Jon Lord, 46no, and Kristian Halstead, 20no, in the middle they got home with wickets and balls to spare.

In Division one Zimbabwean Ian Nicolson continues to impress but still cannot turn his individual glory into wins for Luddenden Foot.

The paceman claimed six Jer Lane wickets on Saturday but his side was on the wrong end of a 48-run defeat. Mick Hustler made 60 for Jer Lane but it was swishing from the tail enders which took the game away from Foot, number ten Phil Yeadon finishing unbeaten on 42 as Jer reached 261 for nine.

Foot made a slow start in response and although many of their batsmen played themselves in, they could not build up a decent head of steam.