Eastgate Cross Keys won the battle of the unbeaten teams in League A when they came through against Weardale Steel to guarantee a quarterfinal tie against the lowest qualifier from League B.

The Steel works batted first and made steady progress with Ian Muse making 20 and Rob Dawson 17. However the scoring rate was slow, with Tony Newbon and George Wearmouth only conceding four runs each from their three overs. The Steel men had only lost five wickets when their overs were completed with a score of 74. This score could have been lower had it not been for an unenviable record of three catches dropped behind by wicket keeper, Shakey Hope.

The Eastgate reply showed completely different tactics as they raced through for short singles and pushed the score along quickly with Chris Wearmouth making 20 and Raymond Snaith 17. They were followed by George Wearmouth with 17 and Colin Perry on 15. However the final runs proved a struggle as the five batsmen only contributed three runs but the Keys were victorious.

Tow Law Black Horse batted first against Wolsingham Mill Race and put up a good performance to reach 97 all out. The leading scorers were Lee Furber with 23, David Craggs 21, Adam Orton 19 and Jamie Dawson 15. The Mill Race reply started badly when they lost their first two wickets for only eleven runs but Josh Wilkes with 23 and Mike Reed with 19 set up a winning score. Ritchie Hanlon continued with 20 and the Mill Race batted their innings out to make 123 all out.

Stanhope All Stars batted first against Wolsingham All Stars and made a very poor start as Mark Proud took two wickets for four runs in his first over. However John Woodhall with 22 and Brian Short with 18 steadied the Stanhope side. They were followed by steady batting from Neil Wilson with 21 and Alan Fairless with 20 to reach 99 all out.

The Wolsingham reply was stretched until the contributions of 23 from Dave Routledge, 20 each from Kevin Walker and Ross Sanderson and 21 from Michael Watson steered the team to victory with a score of 119 all out.

The matches next week move on to the knock out quarter finals.

The match will be Monday, 1 July - winner of league A v fourth in league B; Tuesday, 2 July - runners-up in League A v third in league B; Wednesday, 3 July - runners-up in League B v third in league A; Thursday, 4 July - winner of league B v fourth in league A. All counterfoils and money for the raffle must be in by 10 July, for the draw at the final on Sunday, 14 July at 2.00pm.