Burnmoor stretched their lead from 18 to 24 points as they headed closer still to landing the championship prize with just five games remaining.

With their main rivals, Whitburn, held by third-placed Boldon it was a good day for the leaders to show their outstanding talents and they did exactly that against Philadelphia.

Ian Conn (4-16) and Brett Pelser (3-32) had Phili in all sorts of trouble and when they were all out for just 75 only one batsman had reached double figures. Burnmoor needed little time to overpower their hosts, winning by eight wickets.

Whitburn were disappointed not to win against Boldon who, in response to 225-8, hung on desperately at 95-9 to frustrate their hosts.

Neil Ayre (48) and Paul Shields (41) set Whitburn on the way, but it was skipper David Bell's 58 that led to maximum batting points before Ashley Thorpe (4-16), Tony Greaves (3-39) and Neil Johnson (2-32) became a formidable bowling trio.

South Hetton got back to winning ways as they outsmarted Felling to win by 155 runs. Hetton posted 234-6 with a wealth of batting, including a half-century from Sean Bradbury. Felling were routed for a paltry 79 with John Leslie (5-37) and David Wilkinson (5-49) tearing them apart.

Their defeat gave renewed hope for Seaham Harbour in their bid to get out of bottom place. They gained useful extra points in a draw with Marsden, although they had to hold on at the end with Jeff Laws (73 not out) engineering the survival. Marsden posted 201-9 with Chris Mann (95) enjoying the challenge and unlucky to be out so close to a century. Seaham's response was 129-8, which included a nail-biting last few overs.

Eppleton had a spectacular win against Horden, where Adrian Hedley hit a second successive century but finished on the losing side. Eppleton passed the Horden total of 223 with seven wickets still intact thanks to 76 from David Tate and an unbeaten 75 from Guyan Sirisoma, who had earlier grabbed four wickets.

Another century for Sean Birbeck, the Hetton Lyons opener, was the highlight of their draw with Durham City.