Lidsdale have maintained their position at the top of the ladder with an easy win over Lithgow Hotel who are dragging the chain.

La Salle Hornets and Hampton are in the top three, not far behind the Lions while Portland, Lansdowne and Valley are all in a group in fourth place on 31.

Association officials were pleased to see that most first grade sides have full strength sides this week.

Hampton v Valley: While none of the Hampton batsmen could go on to record a big score, it was a good effort right down the order with a number of the batting line up getting a start.

Topping the scoring were middle order batsmen Blake Caldwell (22) and Sam Miller, with good contributions coming from openers Josh Kitchener (15) and John Farr (10) while down the order Rob Gracey shipped in with 12, Wayne Campbell 18 and J Risby 16 not out.

Hampton were able to record a solid 144 to set up a challenge for Valley.

Persistent, accurate bowling from Chris Junee kept the Hampton batsmen in check to the extent his return was 5-23 from his eight overs, all five wickets being the top five Hampton batsmen.

Hayden Crowder was a good partner to Junee, taking 4-31 off seven overs while the other wicket went to Ben Sheehan.

Chasing the solid 144 total from Hampton, Valley came up short, being dismissed for 124 despite the efforts of middle order batsman Graham Bell and his 35 who combined in a good partnership with Chris Guigni who finished not out 22.

Others to contribute were Ben Sheehan (14) and Nic Moore with his 10.

All four of the Hampton bowlers got among the wickets, the best haul going to Rob Gracey and his 4-24.

Wayne Campbell backed up his efforts with the bat to return 3-41, Matt Palmer took 2-19 and Dan Hart 1-31 to restrict the Valley batsmen to 124.

Lidsdale Lions v Lithgow Hotel: The Lions had little trouble in keeping Lithgow Hotel in the cellar, dismissing Hotel for 71, before cruising to a win with the loss of only the one wicket.

Only two Lithgow Hotel batsmen reached double figures — Michael Hutchinson and his 14 and a good 22 from Tom Piggott batting down the order.

Four of the five bowlers used by Lidsdale got a scalp or two, Josh Howarth leading the pack with 3-14, while Joel Gurney was not far behind with 3-19.

Dallas Tilley chimed in with a wicket (1-15) and Darren Lambert was happy with his 2-6 from three overs.

Openers Brandan Roach and Ryan Gurney got Lidsdale off to a sound start with a 28 run partnership before Roach fell to Michael Hutchinson.

Gurney went on to finish off the run chase with a well compiled 46, with Darren Lambert chipping in with 10.

The run chase was all over inside of 11 overs, Michael Hutchinson being the sole wicket taker with 1-19 in Lidsdale total of 1-76.

La Salle Hornets v Portland: Hornets maintained their second spot on the ladder with a resounding win over Portland.

The win was set up by a great contribution at the top of the batting order, led by opener Warren Stevens with 87 in Hornets total of 5-272.

Fellow opener Anthony Brown also get among the runs with a good 43 before he fell leg before.

Also making sound contributions to the total were Todd Walsh (29), Scott Bradford (23), Richard Sharp (29), Connor Brown (12 not out) and Matt Hazell (20 not out).

Sam Cameron was the pick of the Portland bowlers with 3-58, the other two wickets going to Rylan Groves and Clint Rochester.

Wickets fell at regular intervals when Portland attempted to chase down the big score, only Joel Cameron troubling the bowlers with 32 before he was bowled by Todd Walsh.

Opener Graham Hutchison made 11, Rylan Groves 16 and Troy Cameron 11 in Portland’s total of 9-99.

Aaron Manton was the leader of the pack for Hornets, returning 3-23, but only just ahead of the 3-26 from Mitch Reid.

Todd Walsh took 2-7 and Connor Brown finished off the Portland innings when he took the final wicket to fall, Portland only being able to field 10 players.