Central Yorkshire: Padgett leads Altofts to top-flight safety

Altofts finished two points clear of Batley who will join bottom side Northowram Fields in Division One next season after losing their last match against Wakefield Thornes.

Lee Padgett (67), Brent Law (45no), Rashid Yousaf (43), Ismail Patel (34no) and Daniel Eden 
(4-47) led Altofts to a seven-wicket victory.

A ninth-wicket stand of 52 between Roheil Hussain (32) and Tariq Hussain (31) was in vain for Batley who were skittled for 119 by Joe Cuthbertson (4-28), Johannes Bothma (3-53) and Matthew Varley (2-20).

Huzaifa Patel (3-39) reduced Thornes’s reply to 87-7 before Varley (24no) and Tharindu Perera (13) shared a crucial 30-run partnership as the Wakefield side won by two wickets.

Jeremy Smith hammered an unbeaten 155 off 112 balls and put on 129 with Chris Metcalf (66) as relegated Northowram piled up 300-9 against Wrenthorpe whose reply fell short on 241, despite a rapid century by Greig Batty, who struck seven sixes.

Champions Townville looked to be heading for only their second league defeat of the season when Hunslet Nelson’s Derrick Hammill (4-25), Michael Lambert (3-21) and Daniel Cross (2-15) toppled them for 103.

Kyllin Vardhan (4-14) and Jack Hughes (4-25) rescued Townville by sending Hunslet’s reply collapsing from 40-2 to 71 all out.

Townville finished 24 points clear of Methley who clinched second place after Marcus Walmsley (4-29) and John Rickers (3-24) routed Birstall for 115 to set up a five-wicket win.

Jaycob Curtling hit 66 as Carlton overhauled Ossett’s 211-6 that included a 90-run stand between Shoaib Latif (96) and Joe Finnigan (36).

In Division One, Sean Wilson hammered 134 off 89 balls in Liversedge’s 81-run victory over promoted Scholes, while Mirfield were relegated after losing by 85 runs to Oulton.