Cleator Cricket Club opened up the title race in the Cumbria Cricket League when they became the first team to beat leaders Furness in the Premier Division.

At the JD Campbell Memorial Ground on Saturday, Furness won the toss and chose to bat, a decision they undoubtedly regretted as they were bowled out for 82.

Veteran David Rooney (6-30) and James Rogers (4-51) teamed up to undo the Furness batting line-up, which looked fragile throughout.

Rogers (39 not out) was the anchor for Cleator after early setbacks as they reached victory on 84-4 - and raised the hopes of the two sides chasing hard after the leaders.

Furness now lead Carlisle by 13 points with Cockermouth two point further back in third.

Carlisle had a potential banana skin at Millom but they successfully avoided any slip ups as they eased to an eight-wicket win.

Millom slumped from 60-1 to 121 all out and only a late burst from Ian Swarbrick (26) got them into three figures.

Henry Walker took 3-6 while Phil Frazer had 3-29.

Although they lost professional Mike Slack cheaply, skipper Marc Brown (46 not out) and Ben Davidson (35) got Carlisle to within touching distance before eventually claiming a comfortable win.

Cockermouth had more to chase at Wigton but they had 12.1 overs and six wickets to spare as they collected maximum points.

They had invited Wigton to bat first and with a run-a-ball 59 from Theo Manihera, which included nine fours and two sixes, the hosts reached 161 in 41.4 overs.

Sam Sharp (3-23) and Jonathan Norman (3-26) were the two most successful bowlers for the champions.

Skipper Alex Grainger was the mainstay of the Cockermouth reply, finishing unbeaten on 83 with most support from Greg Platten (26).

Geeth Kumara and Glen Weightman have been key batsmen for Keswick all season and they turned up trumps again as the Lakesiders beat Dalton by 66 runs at Fitz Park.

Weightman (67) and professional Kumara (58), with support from opener William Atkinson (38), lifted Keswick to 228 all out on the final ball of the innings. Dalton professional Lasith Waduge took 4-41 off his 15 overs.

Opener Robert Jones spearheaded the Dalton reply with 77 but didn’t have enough support and, eventually, the innings subsided to 162 all out.

Sixteen-year-old Finn Turnbull had his best return for the first-team with 3-22, which included the wicket of professional Waduge first ball which put him on a hat-trick. Joe Grisedale, who doesn’t bowl very often, took 3-2 from 2.3 overs.

Whitehaven elected to bat first against Lindal Moor but didn’t prosper as they were bowled out for 108 in 34 overs.

It was looking particularly grim but an attractive 41 by No.7 batsman Lee Norman at least got them into three figures.

Ryan Gilmour (3-8), professional Janith De Silva (3-35) and Craig Crawford (3-44) combined to cause the problems.

An opening stand of 62 by Gilmour (47) and Alasdair Grunshaw (31) laid the base for Lindal’s winning reply of 109-3 in 26.3 overs.

A thrilling knock from Simon Beare turned the game for Workington against bottom side Egremont and they won by seven wickets.

Replying to Egremont’s 99 all out, Workington started in dreadful fashion. They were 0-3 after just seven deliveries with two wickets for Coady Scott.

But Beare just took the game by the scruff of the neck and, in typically belligerent fashion, smashed 50 off just 22 balls. He took Workington to 100-3 off only 13.3 overs, finishing 73 not out from 37 balls, which included 13 fours and two sixes.

Skipper Robbie Lambert (22 not out) shared in the unbroken century stand.

Earlier, Egremont had won the toss and elected to bat but were struggling at 16-3. Then, a partnership of 63 between professional Shikar Mehta and Sean Bostock took them to 79-3 from 27 overs.

They subsided to 79-7 as Adam Chambers grabbed a hat-trick, including Mehta for 46 and Bostock for 16.

The innings closed on 99 from 37.2 overs with Chambers taking 6-32.