IT was a good day for Ribblesdale League Section A leaders Salesbury who beat Cherry Tree while title rivals Settle slipped to a second success defeat.

Salesbury batted first and amassed an imposing total of 238-6 with Hashen Ramanayake scoring a brilliant run-a-ball 113 with telling contributions from Liam Parkinson (33) Peter Richardson (30).

Timycen Maruma took three wickets for Cherry Tree.

The home side got off to a poor start and, at one point were struggling at 66-5. However Kelan Florentine (57 not out) and Mas Iqbal (48) gave the innings some respectability as they ended on 186-6.

Salesbury stretched their lead over Settle at the top following their defeat at Section B leaders Barnoldswick.

Batting first, the home side lost both openers with less than 10 runs on the board but Jack Rietschel and Majid Inayat began the rebuilding process with a third wicket partnership of 88 - Rietschel making 52.

Inayat held the innings together and there was a quick fire 27 by A Latif. However that good work looked to be have undone when Ashen Siva brilliantly took four wickets in four balls with the score on 141.

However, Inayat received some support from the tail and was eventually out for 79 in a total of 189-9.

Silva finished with excellent figure of 7-47 off his 17 overs.

Settle, who lost their unbeaten start to the season at Whalley last Sunday, suffered an early blow in their reply when Robbie Davidson was bowled first ball by Jonny Beach.

Silva (21) and Darryl Husbands (34) looked to build the innings but struggled against the twin spin attack off Jack Ritschel (4-56) and Chanada De Silva (4-40) and despite a patient 25 from Ben Hulse who was last out, Settle were bowled out for 126.

Padiham missed out on closing the gap on Settle after they were beaten by a Ribblesdale Wanderers side who boosted their chases of gaining promotion from Section B.

Batting first, Ribblesdale made 216-4, mainly due to Mack Spencer (49) and an unbeaten knock of 72 from Ryan Canning.

Padiham made a reasonable effort to reach the target but despite several batsman making some runs, - Jack Dewhurst (36), Rhys Marshall (34) and Bradley Graham (34) - none could go on to make the big score needed and they ended on 186-9.

David Steinson, with 3-28, was the pick of the Wanderers bowlers.

Section A champions Oswaldtwistle Immanuel poor form continued as they were convincingly beaten by Earby who maintained their current run of fine form.

Earby, second in Section B, batted first and made the top score of the day with a superb 283-9 - Jovaun Van Wyngaardt top scored with an unbeaten 84 while their were good knocks from Lee Parkinson (48), Girvacques De Jager (39) and Nathan Hodge (40). Andeas Sudnik took three wickets.

In reply Oswaldtwistle were bowled out for 81, Wyngaardt following up his fine batting display by taking 5-27 to give Earby a huge 202-run victory.

Feniscowles remain rooted to the foot of Section B after they were beaten by Read. Batting first, Feniscowles were dismissed 73, a total Read reached without loss, Will Wrathall top scoring with an unbeaten 43.

Whalley are fourth in Section A after victory at Baxenden.

Baxenden batted first and were bowled out for 106, Aneeq Hussain (22) and Ben Brierley (15no) the only batsman in double figures with Jack Edgar (3-31) and Fergus Bailey (6-32) doing the damage. Jack Edgar (46) made sure that Whalley reached the total without too many alarms with seven wickets and 17 overs to spare.

And Euxton picked up a welcome win as the Section B strugglers beat Section A bottom side Brinscall.

Brinscall batted first, and scored 136-9 - Sehan Weerasinghe top scoring with 41.

Madushan Ravichandrakumar claimed 5-35 and Rizwan Patel 3-41.

Euxton got off to a good start with Richard Houghton (23) and Ravichandrakumar (27).

However, it was James Bone with 52 who helped them to four wickets win despite 4-40 from Weerasinghe.