Birstall's promotion hopes are dealt a blow following defeat to St Michael's

Birstall's hopes of catching the top two sides in Bradford League Championship Two were dealt a blow when they suffered a six-wicket defeat to Wakefield St Michael's last Saturday.

The win saw second placed St Michael’s move 46 points clear of Birstall, while they are now seven points behind Keighley with a game in hand.

Birstall were bowled out for 151, a total which was boosted by 27 from 25 balls from youngster Patrick Howgate as they were kept in check by Tom Robinson (4-58) and Ollie Lightfoot (3-53).

Opener Mark Atkinson led the reply with 80, including a six and 14 fours, while Peter Gregerson took all four wickets to fall at a cost of 40 runs.

Spen Victoria slipped to a 76-run defeat at the hands of Bowling Old Lane.

Leg-spinner Alex Leadbeater returned his best figures of the season of 6-52, while Michael Flathers took 4-62 as Old Lane were bowled out for 180, with captain Farakh Hussain (59) top scoring.

Spen crumbled to 104 all out as paceman Zeeshan Haider impressed with 5-31.

Liversedge suffered a 55-run defeat to Buttershaw St Paul’s.

Liversedge produced an impressive bowling display and dismissed St Paul’s for 142 as Graham Winn (3-44) and Ahmed Khan (3-31) impressed, with Ben Platt (40) top scoring.

But it proved a winning total as James Sawyer took 8-40 and Liversedge were dismissed for 87.

Hopton Mills were dismissed for 147 against Carlton, with Umar Abbas (41) top scoring.

Daniel White (49) helped Carlton complete a six-wicket win over their opponents.

Altofts continued their good run of form with a 62-run win over Northowram Fields.

Once again, their batsmen set up the win. Craig Wood (50), Luke Webb (41) and Farroukh Alam (39) helped them to a total of 247 despite the efforts of Josh Bennett-Kear (3-72), Will Parkin (3-66) and Jacob Slator (3-35).

Louis Cockburn top scored with 43 in Northowram’s reply of 185.

Tom Glover (3-43) and Wood (3-23) were the key bowlers for Altofts.

Leaders Keighley were made to work hard for their three-wicket win over Brighouse, which keeps them just ahead of St Michael’s.

All-rounder Deron Greaves top scored with 44 and was supported by Quadratullah Azizi (42) as Brighouse made 174 when they batted first.

Hammy Shahzad (4-30), Paul Quinlan (3-30) and Adam Greenwood (3-77) shared the wickets for Keighley.

Max Davidson (31) was top scorer as Keighley edged home with seven wickets down. Greaves followed up his good work with the bat by taking 3-42.