A GLORIOUS day of sunshine greeted the opening day of the new season, and much of the cricket played matched the weather with a number of clubs laying down impressive early markers.

There were outright results in five of the six Saturday games, but the one match that ended in stalemate saw the best individual display as Gary Pratt carried the additional burden of captaincy lightly to turn on the style in a superb exhibition of batting.

Pratt will not have welcomed a fixture list that sent his team to newly-strengthened Guisborough for a potentially tricky encounter, and the opening exchanges provided some tough cricket as the home attack kept chipping away at Richmond’s top order.

But Pratt played with a freedom not available to others and hauled his team almost single-handedly to a total of 225-7, ending with a glorious flourish as he made a mess of Ranil Dhammika’s debut figures (3-102) by smashing 28 runs in the final over – the sixball barrage including three sixes and two fours.

The new skipper ended unbeaten with 147 from 153 balls, Andy Fleming the next top scorer with 29.

The frenetic last over seemed to dampen the home team’s ambitions, and they eased to 165-7 in a cautious reply that never threatened the title holders,the Dalesmen picking up a handsome 16 points, courtesy of that sensational late blitz.

The five victorious teams all won with relative ease batting second, Darlington’s victory at Barnard Castle the most startling as last year’s runners-up crushed their hosts in a ruthless display.

Castle have a world record run maker on their books, but Pakistani Aamer Sajjad’s prolific form in his native country has delayed his arrival in the country – and how they missed him.

From a disastrous 11-5,they slid to 23-9, and then 31 all out.

And it wasn’t even a mercifully quick death – Jonny Barnes sent down 16.4 overs and conceded just six runs while picking up four wickets, Doug Mulholland equally impressive as he bagged 5-18 in 17 overs. The Quakers lost their first wicket with only four on the board, but rushed to victory in just 5.1 overs.

Local rivals Great Ayton and Stokesley were two more teams enjoying comprehensive nine-wicket victories.

The Leven Park faithful saw their team peg visitors Sedgefield down to a score of 131-8, Michael Croft impressive with 4-28, before a century opening stand between skipper Chris Batchelor and Neil Pearson (39) snuffed out the visitors.

The Batchelor boy saw the job through to the finish with an unbeaten 77 as the Aytonians won with more than 12 overs to spare.

Promoted Redcar couldn’t get going in their return to the top flight at the SCG. The loss of early wickets put them on the back foot, and some outstanding fielding kept them under real as James Beaumont (3-27) and Andrew Weighell (4-17) tightened the noose. Set just 99 for victory Stokesley cruised home inside 25 overs, as Beaumont (44no) and new pro Chris Allinson (41no) shared an unbroken stand of 73.

A second wicket partnership of 158 killed of Hartlepool in their game at Marton.

Aussie Tom Reid’s debut return of 4-29 helped pin Pool down to 163-9, but the visitors hopes rose briefly when they grabbed an immediate wicket themselves. That was as good as it got. From there on in Whalid Ghauri and Lee Hodgson dominated, Hodgson eventually falling for 67 with his team just six short of victory, and Ghauri majestic with ten fours and three sixes in an unbeaten 94.