Castleford's hopes of a Headingley final dashed with semi defeat to Sheffield Collegiate

The North champions missed out on a place in another Headingley final – where they won the competition two years ago – when they lost to South champs Sheffield Collegiate.

They did a decent job in the field, but were let down by a poor batting display that saw them fall 47 runs short.

Collegiate elected to bat first and were given a solid base in reaching 66-1 and 110-3 with Shaaiq Choudhry hitting 30, Jack Timby 25 and Samuel Meadows 24.

Castleford whittled away, however, with the last seven wickets going down for 50 runs to leave the Sheffield team all out for 160.

Eddie Morrison did much of the damage as he claimed 5-59 while the other wickets fell to David Wainwright (3-37) and Jack Young (2-23).

Castleford’s reply started disappointingly with three wickets down for 22.

A brief recovery through Brayden Clark (29) and Wainwright (11) took them up to 55, but when four wickets then went down for 14 runs it left them with a mountain to climb.

Morrison (21) and Luke Edwards (14) battled on, but dreams of another big final were over for Cas when their last wicket fell with their score on 113.

Despite this defeat Castleford can still look back on a fantastic campaign in which they did the league and cup double for the first time.

Great Preston agonisingly missed out on promotion from Division Three of the Gordon Rigg Bradford League despite a 125-run win over Gildersome & Farnley Hill in their final game of the season.

They finished in third place, just two points behind runners-up Altofts and three behind champions Scholes.

Preston could do no more than collect a maximum 20 points in their last match as opener Hayden Mortimer led the way with a superb century.

His 124 included seven sixes and 13 fours and with James Conlon contributing 45, Ethan Walker 44 and Oli Baron 31 a 325-8 total was posted.

Gildersome & Farnley Hill were all out for 200 as Chris Aplin took 4-39.