Relentless Pontefract make it eight in a row in Yorkshire Premier League

With England's Patrick Rooney and Scotland's Rory Stewart training ahead of the World Team Championships in Hong Kong and former British Junior Open champion Sam Todd away on tour, Ponte were depleted for their trip to Sheffield, but any nagging doubts about losing their 100 per cent record were eventually dispelled.

Connor Sheen made his first appearance of the season for the first team and took care of Abbeydale's Hayden Tetley in three games, while youngster Chester Dockray made similarly quick work of his win over Kieran Heaphy.

It got a bit trickier thereafter as third string Adam Taylor leapt to a two-game lead but then ran out of steam, Abbeydale's Josh Payne clawing his way back to win in five.

But a similarly gruelling match soon clinched the victory for Ponte as captain Matt Godson dug deep to win a lengthy five-setter.

Top string Tom Bamford's match with Jordan Hardwick also went the distance, with the Abbeydale number one taking it to restrict Ponte's winning margin to 18- 8.

That stretched Pontefract's lead at the top to an ominous 24 points as Hallamshire went down to a 18-6 defeat at Cleethorpes.

With usual number one Nick Wall at the Worker Bee Manchester Open and Nick Matthew on a working holiday in the British Virgin Islands, the Sheffield side found themselves all at sea on the cold Lincolnshire coast.

The hosts' Dave Ball won a cracker at fifth string against young Indian player Jain Tanishka and although Jack Cornell did get a win on the board for Hallamshire at number four, it all went the home side's way thereafter. Harry Falconer beat Welsh junior Oliver Jones in four, then Toby Ponting and Malaysian Sanjay Jeeva won in three at the top of the order.

Leapfrogging Hallamshire into second place are Harrogate who beat Ferriby Hall 19-6 to claim a sixth victory of the season.

The Straysiders' two youngsters in the lower order, Alec Fuller and Tommy Simpson, both won early on (Simpson coming from two games down to overcome Dan Lawrence), but then Ferriby Hall's Yusef Forster won a see-saw battle with Richard Hinds 15-13 in the fifth to reduce the arrears.

Harrogate's top order sealed the victory, though, as former world number 20 Chris Simpson beat former England number one junior Ben Sockett and Stuart MacGregor defeated England-born Guyanese international Samuel Ince-Carvalhal.

Fourth-placed Dunnington netted a 15-8 win over Doncaster after the defending champions again fielded four full-time pros and were deducted the points gained at number four and five as a result.

Their Pontefract-raised player Asia Harris came from a game down to beat Ed Shannon at fifth string, but her three points and the result of Rob Thirst at number four (who lost 3-0 in any case) are expunged due to the rule infringement.

David Turner won, but Dunnington's Amaad Fareed beat Donny captain Joel Arscott in five.

The top string match ended prematurely when Dunnington's Owain Taylor had to quit in the third game due to injury against Simon Herbert at a game apiece, so the world number 49 took a four-game win.

Fifth-placed Queens Sports Club claimed a 16-7 home win against Woodfield thanks to middle order wins from stalwarts Danny Bray, Lewis Harding and James Earles. Woodfield got a win on the board at numer five via Alec Tomlinson's win over former world number 15 Sarah Campion.

Lastly, the Halifax crowd were treated to a cracker at top string as Finnlay Withington made his first appearance of the season but went down to firebrand George Parker in four highly entertaining games, two of which went to lengthy tiebreaks.