Carlisle Cricket Club continued their impressive start to the season with a seven-wicket win at Lindal Moor.

With leaders Furness hammering third-placed Workington, it kept them six points behind and already suggesting it could become a two-horse race in the Cumbria Cricket League Premier Division.

Carlisle had Lindal in trouble early on at 13-4 and then half the team were dismissed for 37. They did recover a little but were bowled out for 114 in 30.4 overs.

Again, it was the seam attack of professional Mike Slack (4-46), Henry Walker (3-29) and Phil Frazer (3-34) who combined to see off their hosts.

Although they lost Ben Davidson without scoring, Carlisle were carried to a straightforward victory by skipper Marc Brown (43 not out), Slack (35) and Alex Raybould (30 not out).

Leaders Furness were handsome winners over Workington after posting 200-9 from their 50 overs.

There were significant contributions through the order, particularly from Scott Pearcey (40) and Lewis Gribbin (38). Simon Beare (3-53) was the most successful Workington bowler.

The west Cumbrians never got going and had lost half the side for 42. 

Opener Grant Reid (25) and skipper Robbie Lambert (13) were the only batsmen to reach double figures as professional Sachith Pathirana (4-10) and Mark Daly (4-20) posed too many problems.

Champions Cockermouth were too strong for Egremont at Sandair after they reached 272-8 in their 50 overs.

Opener and captain Alex Grainger led the way with 97 and had good support from Tom Norman (47). Egremont professional Shikhar Mehta took 3-66 and Coady Scott had 3-76.

Skipper Dave Raynor (20) was the only Egremont batsman to reach double figures as Jonathan Norman (6-25) wreaked havoc.

Zimbabwe international Ryan Burl was stand-in pro for Whitehaven at home to Dalton and he helped them to an important win. Burl took 5-54 as Dalton were bowled out for 90 in a low-scoring game at the Playground. Liam Curwen top-scored with 32.

Earlier, Whitehaven had struggled themselves and were bowled out for 106 with Conor Edwards top-scoring with 23. Lewis Woodend took 4-34.

Wigton did well from their stand-in pro Jovaun van Wyngaardt in their home game with Millom but still couldn’t fashion the win. The South African top-scored with 41 and took 2-28 from 14.2 over.

Millom were bowled out in the last over for 190 with solid contributions from Danny Fallows (47), Mile Wilson (39) and professional Sameera Sadamai (39) while Wigton skipper Nico Watt had 5-52 from his 15 overs.

Wigton fell well short with sipper Watt (14) the only batsmen to give any support to van Wyngaardt.

More than 400 runs were scored at Cleator where the hosts beat Keswick by 20 runs. 

Cleator made 213-9 from their 50 overs with new professional Supeshala Jayathilake (53) and Darren Clark (48) leading the way. Geeth Kumara, the Keswick professional, took 6-81 from his 15 overs.

Keswick, who have only one win so far, gave it a good go and were eventually bowled out for 193 in the 47th over.

Will Atkinson (61) and Kumara (34) led the chase for Keswick whose cause wasn’t helped by three run-outs.