Eccleshill United ended Knaresborough Town's fourteen week reign at the top of the Toolstation NCEL Division One table as a ninth straight league win in midweek saw the Eagles soar to the summit.

Luke Harrop's second half hat-trick helped seal a 4-0 home win over Ollerton Town after Jonathan Irving had given them the lead near the half-hour mark and they are now one point ahead of Knaresborough who had been the division's leaders since August 22nd.

The game on Wednesday marked the halfway point of the Division One season with 231 of the 462 campaign's matches now played, a milestone that was delayed by 24 hours when Hallam's match with FC Bolsover was called off on Tuesday due to a waterlogged pitch at Sandygate.

In the Premier Division, Rainworth Miners Welfare have stretched their unbeaten run to nine games and move up to fifth after a 2-0 home defeat of Hall Road Rangers, Nathan Modest and Tomas Poole with the Wrens' goals.

Rangers drop to twelfth with Bottesford Town climbing above them into tenth following their 4-3 victory at home to Garforth Town.

Mark Simpson had given the away side a fifth minute lead but that was quickly cancelled out by Wayne Graves and Declan Bacon then gave Bottesford a half-time 2-1 advantage.

Four goals were then shared in five minutes, Lee Turner and Sean Hunter netting to put Garforth 3-2 up before Bacon's second and Bottesford's fourth from Dayle Hutson on 67 claimed the win.

Barton Town put some daylight between themselves and the bottom three as they won 1-0 at home to Staveley Miners Welfare, Callum Terrell's first half injury time strike earning them the victory despite being reduced to ten men.

Eli Hey and Vaughan Redford secured Pontefract Collieries a place in the Third Round of the League Cup with a 2-1 victory at Albion Sports, Lamin Janneh with a late consolation for the Lions.

Thackley's cup match at home to Swallownest was postponed as was the Premier Divison match between Harrogate Railway Athletic and Liversedge whilst Pickering Town will have to wait another week to get their home County Cup game with Redcar Town played after that was also called off.

And, there were two friendlies with East Yorkshire Carnegie beaten 4-3 at home by North Ferriby United whilst there was an early finish for Clipstone's big fundraising match with Mansfield Town at the Worksop Van Hire Stadium.

The Stags brought a very strong side to the Cobras to help them raise cash after vandals had caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to their clubhouse and the Football League outfit were leading 7-0 in front of a big crowd of 451 when floodlight failure at half-time brought the game to a premature end.

Photo: Action from Barton Town's 1-0 home victory over Staveley Miners Welfare in the Premier Division on Tuesday night. (Picture: Jim Nichol)