KEIGHLEY Cricket Club grabbed a crucial three-wicket win at East Ardsley on Saturday in Division Two of the Gordon Rigg Bradford Premier League to ease their relegation fears.

But their excitement was doused somewhat 24 hours later as they were dumped out of the Jack Hampshire Cup, losing their quarter-final at Hunslet Nelson by 111 runs.

Dealing with the positives first, and Keighley moved out of the relegation zone and up to ninth with Saturday’s tense away win.

They had been on a poor run, but they started brightly at mid-table East Ardsley as Ijaz Ahmed took three early wickets on his way to figures of 3-31.

After that, the star of the show was Lucas Keslinke, who, as the fifth bowler, took an important 4-27 from his five overs.

That meant East Ardsley could only manage 158-9 from their 42 overs in what was a rain-affected match.

With Ryan Ridehalgh hitting a quickfire 35 and Zahir Shah scoring a classy 41, Keighley looked in cruise control in their chase at 141-3 after 30 overs.

But they wobbled badly from there, losing four wickets for 10 runs to slip to 151-7, only for Nathan Storton and Dillon Birkett to scramble them over the line.

The following day, Keighley’s batting frailties were well and truly exposed.

They bowled first at Hunslet Nelson and allowed the hosts to run away with things in the final 10 overs.

Keighley were carted around at 10 runs per over late on, leaving them chasing a tricky total of 225-4 from 40 overs.

And despite Ridehalgh impressing again with 41, none of his team-mates could even manage to reach 20, as Keighley were bowled out for just 114 and bowed out of the cup in miserable fashion.

Keighley’s next league game is at home to fellow Division Two strugglers Hopton Mills, where a win would take them further clear of the drop zone.