Doncaster won yet again at the top of the Yorkshire Premier League this week but Pontefract 1's whitewash of Woodfield narrowed the gap ever so slightly with three matches to play.

Leaders Doncaster travelled to mid-table Dunnington and won 19-9 on Wednesday night but Pontefract 1's 20-3 hammering of Woodfield reduced the gap by one to 10 points. Ponte may be further encouraged by the fact that all three of their remaining fixtures are against teams in the bottom half of the table.

Doncaster's night began with two lengthy lower-order tussles as Asia Harris brilliantly battled back from losing the first two games 11-4 11-1 against Sam Gibbon to win the third on a tie-break, then take the next two to complete a scintillating comeback. On the adjacent court, her Doncaster team-mate Will Donnelly won his opening two games only to be pegged back to parity by Seif Heikal. Donnelly recovered his composure to win the decider 11-5 and record his seventh YPL win out of eight this season.

Lewis Doughty won in three at third string to complete the away side's victory although Chris Simpson did notch three points for the hosts with an epic five-setter against Joel Arscott.

Simon Herbert made a welcome return to beef up Doncaster's line-up after missing the last two fixtures due to competing on the PSA Tour in Detroit, Pittsburgh and Houston. The world No.54 was embroiled in another five-game affair which he took 11-2 in the decider against Welshman Owain Taylor.

Pontefract 1 recorded their second maximum of the season to keep up the pressure though (and their victory over Woodfield also did their stablemates Pontefract 2 a big favour at the bottom of the table).

Skipper Matt Godson and Adam Taylor gave the hosts a pleasing start by winning in three and four games respectively, before Tom Bamford swept Woodfield head coach Alex Cutts aside in three entertaining, clean games to register the bonus points.

Although Elijah Thomas's clash with Caleb Boy was also a straight-games affair, it was by no means straightforward for the New Zealander as each game finished 13-11. That set the stage for the No.1s and Ponte's 23-year-old Egyptian Omar El Torkey finished off a great night for the home crowd by battling back from two down against former England international George Parker for a sizzling 6-11 6-11 11-8 11-3 11-8 win.

Defending champions Hallamshire are just about still in with a shout at 26 points off the top. They hammered an under-strength Queens 20-2 to all-but end the Halifax side's title ambitions.

Three-time world champion Nick Matthew returned to the top of Hallamshire's line-up and won 3-0 against James Earles, with ever-present Adam Turner also winning in three against Queens' Kuwaiti Bader Almaghrebi.

Earlier in the night, No.5 Nick Hargreaves was also a straight-games winner and Nick Wall Snr and Matt Gregory dropped just one game each against Danny Bray and Northern Irishman Stephen Hearst.

Down the bottom, Pontefract 2 and Ferriby Hall both capitalised on Woodfield's heavy defeat to make big strides towards safety.

Ponte 2 went 10 points clear of the dreaded dotted line by virtue of a narrow 15-10 win at mid-table Harrogate. 

Ross Kneller struck an early blow for the Straysiders but back came Connor Sheen whose recent ankle injury didn't seem too much of a problem as he swept to a 3-0 won over Richard Hinds.

The night's highlight was undoubtedly the second string tussle between Ben Hetherington and Gabriel Cox. Hetherington not only battled back from two games down, he then saved eight match balls to squeeze out a crucial 16/14 win in the fifth.

But when Harrogate's Lawmba Chileshe won the all-Kiwi battle at top string with Mason Smales in three games, it set the stage for a winner-takes-all clash between the third strings, Chester Dockray and Lewis Harding. Almost inevitably, it also went to five with Ponte's Dockray winning the decider 11-7 and giving his side a massive relegation tonic.

Newly promoted Ferriby Hall are now 14 clear of Woodfield after their own nail-biting 15-10 victory at Abbeydale.

The momentum swung all night as Ferriby's Glyn Saunders and Abbeydale's Phil Scully split the opening stanzas. Yusef Forster won a monster clash with Michael Tallentire at No.3 only for Abbeydale to respond at second string as Stanley Sykes beat Ben Sockett in four. The climax was rapid though as Ben Smith won in three much to the away side's glee.