Top two remain in the title race but defeated Queens fall away
Queens’ title hopes are all but over following defeat to Hallamshire in the Yorkshire Premier Squash League.
The defending champions eased past an under-strength Queens 20-2 to scupper the Halifax side’s hopes and stay within 26 points of the leaders with three matches remaining.
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, number five 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.
Leaders Doncaster won 19-9 at Dunnington while second-placed Pontefract 1's 20-3 whitewash of Woodfield narrowed the gap ever so slightly to 10 points.
Doncaster's night began with two lengthy lower-order tussles as Asia Harris brilliantly battled back from losing the first two games 114 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 number 54 was embroiled in another fivegame affair which he took 11-2 in the decider against Welshman Owain Taylor.
At the bottom, Pontefract 2 and Ferriby Hall both capitalised on Woodfield's heavy defeat with victories that help them make big strides to safety.
Pontefract 2 beat mid-table Harrogate 15-10 while Ferriby Hall edged Abbeydale by the same score in a nail-biting encounter.