Riccarton overcame Marist by five wickets on Saturday, but not before some stern resistance.
Riccarton's win enabled it to charge to 48 points, 20 ahead of second-placed Old Boys. The other team to claim maximum points was Burnside-West over St Albans, while Old Boys beat Sydenham outright, all three matches ending with plenty of time remaining .
Riccarton skipper Robbie Frew said his side was made to work much harder on Saturday than in its previous matches.
``This time we had quite a battle to get on top of Marist. They kept us out for a while and made us struggle,'' Frew said.
Marist opener Gareth Hopkins furthered his claims for the Canterbury wicketkeeper-batsman's job with an accomplished 79. He found an able ally in Dayle Shackel who, although only scoring 11, defied the demanding Riccarton attack for nearly two hours.
Riccarton's bowling star was Darren Walker, who improved on his five-wicket bag in the previous round, by claiming six for 19 from 13.4 overs of testing left-arm medium-fast deliveries.
``He just keeps on getting better. He bowls a really good line and gives little away,''Frew said.
Walker was assisted by wicketkeeper Blair Miller, who bagged five catches.
Riccarton was set a modest 110 to win on a Warren Park pitch playing better than the first day. Its best batting came from Glenn Foulkes and Robbie Frew, who added 47 together, while Darron Reekers was the pick of the Marist bowlers.
Burnside West-University also collected full points, inflicting upon St Albans at Burnside Park its second outright loss in as many matches .
St Albans could only set the home side 106 to win, which it achieved by mid-afternoon with five wickets down.
Only Glynn Howell and an aggressive Garfield Charles (45) made much headway against the Burnside-West attack, spearheaded by Hamish Kember and Mark Hastings, who between them captured seven wickets.
Burnside-West's batting was led by Hastings and Campbell Ogilvie, who added 52 together for the fourth wicket, after St Albans seamer Stephen Cunis had made early inroads with three wickets.
Old Boys beat Sydenham well before 3pm, but it was a sudden end to an unsatisfactory game. Again, the ball kept low at Sydenham Park -there were 16 leg-before-wicket decisions in the 34 wickets which fell, plus two run-outs.
Greg O'Reilly offered most resistance for Sydenham, which resumed at 27 for four. He batted 82min for his 28. The only other player to reach double figures was Todd Harris, who hit three fours in his unbeaten 17.
Chris Flanagan must have happy memories of the ground. Two seasons ago he took 10 for eight in one innings, this time he had a match analysis of seven for 33. Old Boys had Llorne Howell to thank for its six-wicket success. He scored an unbeaten 46 in an hour.
At Garrick Park, Old Collegians' captain Andrew Hughes and No. 11 Dave Cartwright defied Lancaster Park-Woolston for 30min to deny the home team victory.
Set 196 in 146min, plus 20 overs, Old Collegians virtually abandoned the chase at tea with the score 50 for four. Without the injured John Quinn to spearhead the attack, the combined team's bowlers were unable to break through on the slow pitch.
In the morning wickets fell regularly against the steady Old Collegians' medium pace attack. Cartwright again bowled economically and Warren Wisneski moved the ball sharply off the seam.
Scores
Marist 63 and 142 (G Hopkins 79; D Walker 6-19) lost to Riccarton 97-7 dec. and 110-5 by five wickets.
St Albans 110 and 145 lost to Burnside West-University 150 and 106-5 by five wickets.
Sydenham 132 and 94 lost to HSOB 130 and 97-4 by six wickets.
Lancaster Park-Woolston 165 and 139 drew with Old Collegians 109 and 139-9.
Points after three rounds:
Riccarton 48, HSOB 28, Burnside-West 24, Old Collegians 18, East-Shirley 17, Lancaster Park-Woolston 16, Sydenham 4, Marist 0, St Albans 0.