BOTH Tudhoe and Burnmoor took significant strides towards promotion, or at least consideration for promotion, when they recorded relatively comfortable victories on Saturday.

Just a couple of points now separate the leading pair, but with a 32-point gap back to third-placed Esh Winning it looks like the top two just need to hold their nerve in the final five game run-in, with the meeting between them in the penultimate match of the season shaping up to be a title decider.

Tudhoe faced the more difficult task, opponents Mainsforth a steady mid-table outfit capable of beating most teams on their day. But it wasn’t their day on Saturday as Kushen Kishun shared eight wickets with standin skipper Ross Hodgson to bowl the visitors out for 119, and then Ian Grainger (43) joining Danny Thexton (37) in a decisive second-wicket stand that set up a five-wicket win inside 35 overs.

Burnmoor had little trouble in rushing through an eight-wicket home victory over Hylton after bowling their visitors out for 87 in 28.3 overs, Ian Conn the artist with six wickets for 11 runs, but fit-again captain Alec Linsley proving he’s over his hand problems with five victims behind the sticks. Paul Craig then cracked seven fours and two sixes, reaching his unbeaten half-century at the same time as the Moor won the game.

With Castle Eden surprisingly losing at Easington, where Adrian Hedley smashed eight fours and four sixes in a rousing 81 as the hosts posted 177-9 before Gary Ward (7-38) lowered the Castle’s drawbridge for 170, Esh Winning now look like the only team who can upset the leading pair’s plans.

Esh came out on top in another low-scoring game, defeating Boldon CA by 20 runs.

Ben Popovski (5-39) and Ian Male (3-24) forced the hosts into a 31-over declaration on 107-9, but then Paul Chivers (5-33) and Jalat Khan (4-24) skittled the visitors for 87 in just 27 overs to keep the home promotion fires burning.

Life in Division One is slowly ebbing away for both Evenwood and Marsden. Both lost again, and with games fast running out they look ever more likely to be playing in the second tier next summer.

Evenwood’s plight was deepened by Lee Innes, the Philadelphia man striking seven times in 11.4 overs to cut the Wood down for 128.

Phili then rattled off the necessary runs inside 30 overs, Davey Baxter’s 49 not out setting the pace. Marsden thought they’d done enough at the interval of their game at Crook having tipped their hosts out for a paltry 102, but seven wickets from Aussie David Embleton blew the run chase out of the water and left them 18 runs short.

Whiteleas’ Division Two promotion hopes took a sickening blow when they lost by 14 runs to Ushaw Moor.

With both Durham City and Bill Quay claiming emphatic wins it left the leading pair almost 40 points to the good, and even though the Leas have a game in hand, time is now desperately short for the aspirational club.

Stephen Hancock (33 and 3-25) was the main architect of the Moor’s win at Whiteleas, the visitors able to successfully defend a modest 143-9 despite Hamad Ul-Hassan’s (3-29 and 46) all-round efforts for the home team.

Leaders Durham easily disposed of bottom club Peterlee, six wickets from Paul Moralee ending the visitors’ challenge some 93 runs short of City’s first innings total of 173-9 in which Callum Steel hit a half-century, and the Quay unlocked Silksworth by 83 runs as Berwick Hall (4-22) and Anoop Pai (3-36) combined to bowl them out for 139.