OSWALDTWISTLE Immanuel’s Ribblesdale League title hopes were boosted after Oliver Clare guided them to victory over Earby while champions Settle slipped to a second successive defeat.

Opener Clare scored 77 with Shubham Khajuia (47) and Daniel Metcalf with unbeaten 50 all contributing to Ossie’s impressive 255-5 total.

In reply, Earby were all out for 118 with Nathan Hodge top scoring with 31 while Khjuria (3-12) and Niall Heyes (5-47) took the wickets.

Following last weekend’s loss to title challenges Oswaldtwistle, Settle went down again - this time at Whalley

Whalley batted first and were dismissed for 196 with Declan Bailey (64) and Sam Sweeney (35) the main contributors while Josh Mullinder took 5-38 and Sadrian Ward 3-30.

Settle got off to a bad start and were reduced to 26-4 and were unable to recover and were all out for 111 with Joel Blain taking seven wickets.

In the clash between the bottom two teams in Section A, Barnoldswick beat Baxenden in the relegation battle.

Batting first, Baxenden were bowled out for 171 with Matt Griffin (46) and Alex Marcroft (26) in the run before a late run a ball 24 from Gary Sudworth helped push the total along.

Sajid Akhtar took 5-60 and Chalana De Silva 4-39.

An opening partnership of 91 between De Silva (58) and Amir Saddique (23) lay the foundations for Barnoldswick before an unbeaten seventh wicket partnership of 30 between N Ahmed (18no) and Sajid Akhtar (10no) got them over the line.

Cherry Tree entertained Brinscall in a clash of the top two in Section B and it ended all square.

Cherry Tree batted first and set the visitors a target of 219-9 with Mark Hadfield (36), Craig Kennedy (55) and Nas Iqba l(58) in the runs while Sehan Weerasinghe took 5-75.

The Brinscall reply was dominated by opener Joshua Andrew who was unbeaten on 96 not out with good support from Stuart Parker (29).

But in a dramatic finale, the match ended with a run out off the last ball of the match and it ended in a tie.

Padiham batted first at Read and were bowled out for 131 with Matt Walker (3-26) and Oliver Newby (4-45) doing the damage.

Tom Turner (38) and Newby (32) then helped Read to a six wicket victory.

Andrew Needham scored a half century as Ribblesdale Wanderers beat Feniscowles and Salesbury (119) won at Euxton (109) in a low scoring game.