Queens moved into an outright lead as the Yorkshire Premier League reached round six on Wednesday night after a 20-0 whitewash of Harrogate. 

The defending champions fielded Welsh international Emyr Evans at no.1 as well as British junior champion Finnlay Withington, which gave their line-up strength in depth that proved beyond the capabilities of a much-weakened Harrogate. 

Danny Bray, England coach Josh Taylor and former PSA Tour pro James Earles completed the Queens team, and all five won in straight games. Without the Chileshe brothers, Stuart MacGregor or new signing Declan Christie, Harrogate were blown away. 

Previous joint-leaders Pontefract 2 drop to fourth place after a 19-4 defeat at Doncaster.  

Doncaster’s Canadian player Brett Schille quickly conquered Billy Hawes, but Ponte 2’s 18-year-old Ben Beachill battled back from two down to brilliantly overturn David Turner in a fifth-game tiebreak. 

That was as good as it got for the visitors though, as captain Matt Godson’s run of 10 straight YPL victories came to an end at the hands of Toby Ponting at third string and Lewis Doughty, playing against his former club, profited from the after-effects of Tom Bamford’s shoulder injury to win in straight games. Doncaster’s Kiwi no.1 Joel Arscott added the coup de gras with a three-game victory over Adam Taylor. 

York side Dunnington took second spot, five points behind Queens, with a 17-5 win at Pontefract 1 – this in spite of a first YPL appearance in almost three and a half years by a certain James Willstrop. 

Taminder Gata Aura, back at his old stomping ground, joined Michael Andrews and youngster Jarde Carter in carding straight-games victories (although Carter’s were all on tie breaks), while Kuwaiti Seif Heikal took five games to beat Ponte’s Ben Hetherington. 

Dunnington had wrapped up the five bonus points before the no.1s Willstrop and former England team-mate Chris Simpson took to the stage and it was the Commonwealth Games men’s doubles gold medallist Willstrop who took the honours in three. That couldn’t prevent Pontefract 1 slipping to second-bottom. 

Hallamshire move up to third – one of three teams to earn four wins from six so far – as they waltzed to a 19-3 victory over a Woodfield side beset by injury and availability problems. 

Club manager Rob Waller had to turn out at no.5 and he was one of four straight-games defeats for the visitors, including Ben Sockett’s loss to three-time world champion Nick Matthew at no.2 string. 

Only Woodfield’s firebrand George Parker made a dent in Hallamshire’s armour; the world no.27 edging out Hallamshire’s Nick Wall in five games in the top-string tete-a-tete. 

Bottom club Chapel Allerton finally got off the mark for the season with a surprise 17-4 win away at mid-table Abbeydale. 

Although James Blythe got the Sheffield hosts off to a winning start, Chapel Allerton’s homegrown youngster Gabriel Cox levelled matters, Lewis Harding gave them the lead with a 3/1 win and Conor Sheen sealed the team victory by conquering Phil Scully at second string. Welshman Owain Taylor then defeated Jordan Hardwick in quick time to add further gloss to the night for the Leeds club.