Beverley Town Cricket Club 1st XI made leaders Stamford Bridge work hard for a share of the points at the Norwood Recreation Ground on Saturday.
Batting first against their powerful East Yorkshire rivals, Beverley Town made a solid start until a flurry of wickets – including the loss of Jamie Mitchell for a classy 33 – put them on the back foot.
But into the fray came left-hander Ollie Grantham. Against an attack boating the likes of former Fenner player Steve Sergeant and the wily Dave Chaplin, Grantham looked in total command.
He upped the run rate with some sharp running between the wickets and along with Anthony Spence (38) Beverley started to inch towards a respectable total on their run-heavy track.
Grantham looked on target for a memorable century until he fell late on, but he had done enough to help Beverley to a challenging total of 227 all out.
Stamford had won two and drawn two of their previous four games in the York and District Senior Cricket League and in reply they always looked capable of getting close to Beverley’s target.
It took a fine spell from Mitchell (4-38) to peg Stamford Bridge back and they finished on 219-6 to secure a draw.
The result, from which Beverley earned 26 points, sees them still in touch with the league leaders in sixth.
Other results: Clifton Alliance (5) lost to Fenner (30) by 32 runs Fenner 151-8 (M Cooke 43, P Daniel 28, R Davy 33no, A Renton 5-36, T Weaver 3-11); Clifton Alliance 119 (J Hetherton 31, R Barker 4-33, L Robinson 3-41)
Easingwold (26) drew with Studley Royal (13) Easingwold 210-9 (S Piercy 55, J P Marwood 65, S Walmsley 5-65, G Blackburn 3-37); Studley Royal 186-7 (R Nicholson 60, S Walmsley 34, G Blackburn 32, S Piercy 5-74)
Goole Town (30) beat Heworth (5) by 41 runs Goole Town 170-7 (N Foster 59, A Gibbins 40, T Fosdyke 4-40); Heworth 129 (R J Bowling 30, L Moore 5-35)
Sessay (13) drew with Dunnington (27) Dunnington 273-7 (C L King 150no, D A Johnson 40, J Andrew 31); Sessay 206-9 (M C Till 51, N Thorne 47, D A Johnson 4-58, D Kitching 3-58)
York II (7) lost to Woodhouse Grange (30) by 6 wickets York II 216-6 (S Lambert 47, R Flack 45, R Love 54, M Hodson 33no); Woodhouse Grange 217-4 (N Hadfield 47, M Burdett 85no, A Anderson 37)
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