WOODLANDS are now the outright leaders of the Bradford Premier League top flight after defeating Townville by seven wickets on an eventful afternoon.

Wrenthorpe, who started the day sharing top spot, dropped back to fourth after suffering their first defeat of the season at the hands of New Farnley.

Much-fancied Hanging Heaton were involved in a tie with lowly Methley, while Farsley registered their first win of the season at Lightcliffe.

Pudsey St Lawrence and Bradford & Bingley are now second and third after beating Cleckheaton and Undercliffe respectively.

Woodlands’ third win again included a crucial contribution from left-arm spinner Chris Brice.

He took 5-20 – his third five-wicket haul of the season – as Townville were bowled out for 159. Imran Raffique (58) and Jonathan Booth (34) were the only batsmen to make an impression. Woodlands eased to their target with New Zealander Brad Schmulian (41), Greg Finn (31no) and Liam Collins (31no) ensuring there were no slip ups.

Woodlands have 62 points and are three ahead of defending champions Pudsey St Lawrence, who defeated Cleckheaton by five wickets.

Spinner Archie Scott (3-35) and Steve Watts (3-21) helped spark a Cleckheaton collapse which saw their last five wickets fall for 16 runs as they were dismissed for 149. Toby Thorpe was top scorer with 39.

Opener Mark Robertshaw (48) and Barrie Frankland (30no) ensured that St Lawrence reached their target despite the efforts of former Yorkshire off spinner Azeem Rafiq (3-45).

Bradford & Bingley continued their encouraging start to the season by bowling out Undercliffe for 55 to secure a 151-run win.

The result leaves Undercliffe propping up the table with just 15 points from their opening four games since promotion.

The delayed arrival of their influential overseas player Khalid Usman is a huge blow and Undercliffe clearly need his services if they are to arrest their current poor run of form.

Overseas player Muhammed Afridi (72) and Matthew Swallow (53no) shared a sixth-wicket stand of 102 which helped Bradford & Bingley post a score of 206-7 after Craig Wiseman (4-37) had posed early problems.

Undercliffe’s batting crumbled against the bowling of Bailey Wightman (4-28) and Jack Hartley (3-23). Their cause wasn’t helped by three run-outs.

Wrenthorpe’s unbeaten start to the season came to a shuddering halt as New Farnley registered their first win of the campaign by 133 runs.

Even an impressive bowling performance by Matthew Race, who took 7-32, couldn’t inspire another Wrenthorpe triumph.

Opener Adam Waite (64), Dan Hodgson (52) and Lee Goddard (32) helped New Farnley make 211-9 despite the efforts of Race.

Wrenthorpe’s innings was a big disappointment as they crumbled to 78 all out. Left-armer Alex Lilley impressed with 5-22.

The most exciting finish came at Methley where the second-bottom home side and Hanging Heaton fought out a tie.

Sri Lankan Sudara Udagedara had Hanging Heaton’s last man Tom Chippendale stumped by Josh Neal with the scores level on 172. It gave Udagedara figures of 4-52 as Hanging Heaton, despite 54 from opener Nick Connolly failed to get over the winning line.

Methley captain Jarred Warner, who has just been loaned to Sussex by Yorkshire for a month, didn’t bowl in a game which saw his side rekindle some of the spirit which typified their performances last season.

Jordan Laban (58) and Marcus Walmsley (38) led the way in the Methley innings before Aqsad Ali (3-19) and Callum Bethel (3-45) got to work.

Yorkshire leg spinner Josh Poysden is proving to be an inspired signing for Farsley. He has taken six wickets in each of his first two games for the club and his latest haul of 6-49 helped them beat Lightcliffe by 28 runs.

Poysden is proving a potent weapon for the Red Lane outfit and was backed up by pacemen Matt Simpson 3-78 as they defended their total of 198.

Suleman Khan (41) and Yasir Abbas (33) tried to give the Lightcliffe innings impetus but Poysden made sure their efforts were in vain.

Poysden had earlier impressed with the bat as he made the top score of 63 for Farsley to build on the efforts of opener Chris Beech (45). Lightcliffe’s best bowlers was spinner Khan (4-52).