Scholes' struggles continue as they slip to defeat in early start at Townville

It was an early start for the Scholes team last Saturday as they arrived in Castleford for the 9am start and the novalty idea of playing in the morning proved to Townville’s liking.

Opener Shoukat Ali made 35 at the top of the Scholes innings but only captain James Stansfield (29) and number 10 batsman Andrew Robinson (26) offered any other resistance as they were bowled out for 161.

Shahid Nawaz (3-23) was pick of the Townville bowlers, while Connor Harvey, Ritchie Bresnan and Harry Clewett picked up two wickets apiece as Scholes were all out at the start of tye 41st over.

A second-wicket partnership of 118 between Jonathan Booth (77no) and Brayden Clark (41) enabled Townville to comfortably overhaul the Scholes score as they required just 34.1 overs to complete a sixth win of the season which leaves them in seventh place.

Scholes stay second-bottom, seven points behind Bradford and Bingley and 26 ahead of basement side East Bierley, who slipped to an 11th loss of the campaign as they went down by eight wickets to Farsley.

James Logan produced another good all-round performance as Farsley leap-frogged Hanging Heaton into third place.

Logan claimed 5-19 and was backed up by overseas player Pat Kruger (3-20) as East Bierley crumbled to 99 all out with captain Shabir Rashid (23) top scoring.

Farsley stumbled to 7-2 as Rizwan Ali and Mahammad Hafeez struck early blows before Logan (51no) and Dan Hodgson (34no) saw them home with an unbroken stand of 93.

Methley are fifth following their 81-run win against struggling Bradford & Bingley.

Matthew Waite (98) and Adam Patel (62) set Methley on course for a total of 238 with James Wilmshurst (3-40) and Bradley Reeve (3-68) the most successful Bingley bowlers.

Bingley were bowled out for 157 with only Ed Brown (54) taking the challenge to seam bowlers Sohail Raz (4-35) and Marcus Walmsley (3-44).