Vikram Rathour took the honours against Scholes with his third league century of the season, but there was also some excellent batting from Rob McFarlane and Connor Williams for the spectators to admire.

Birstall batted first and got off to a fine start with McFarlane hitting a rapid 61 out of a 68-run opening stand with Williams, made from just 12 overs.

Rathour then joined Williams and the runs continued to flow as the pair put on another 68 before Connor fell to a Mark Hydes catch for 43.

After a steady start to his innings, Rathour took command of the next stand and with Paul Marlow (16) added a further 88 for the third wicket.

Rathour was eventually dismissed, to be fifth out, but not before his magnificent innings had reached 117 and Birstall were able to reach 164-6 from their 45 overs.

In the field perhaps Scholes had looked like a side struggling at the bottom of the table, but with the bat they showed great spirit as they had a go at reaching the big target. Despite finding themselves at 93-5 they took the fight back to the hosts with Mijid Mijeed hitting an unbeaten 90. Former Birstall player Hydes also contributed 32.

But wickets continued to fall and the last four went for 16 runs to leave the visitors all out for 209. Birstall shared the bowling around and all six used enjoyed wicket success with Danny Busfield taking 2-53, Paul Blakeley 2-24, Mick Kaye 2-29, McFarlane 2-26, Richard Pearson 1-41 and John Carruthers 1-25.

A superb bowling performance from Dave Hilton paved the way for a convincing win for BIRSTALL A at Mirfield Parish Cavaliers A in Division Two.

Parish were all out for 86 as Hilton claimed 8-31 from 21.3 overs and there was one wicket each for Mark Heseldin and Adil Taj.

Birstall had few problems reaching the small target and got home with eight wickets to spare with Rob Ellis hitting 44 and James Tolson 28. The six-point win kept Birstall A within five points of leaders Gildersome.