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After a delayed start to the season, our three senior teams finally got their seasons up and running at the end of April, with the Sunday XI, only getting going the first week in May. Surprisingly, the Sunday XI game at the end of April is the only senior match to fall foul to the weather with all games being completed. The same cannot be said of our junior matches, with around 50% of all matches across our 4 age groups being called off /abandoned because of the wet weather.
On a positive note we have 27 new junior players who have signed-up in 2024, taking the total to approaching 60 juniors and leaving our age group coaches with more than a few headaches when it comes to weekly selection – not a bad headache to have though.
To carry on the positivity, Under 15 players Matthew Grundy and Finlay Charnock both made their senior debuts this month- fantastic to see lads.
Off the field, the club has a new social secretary in place and business is booming- please see below for a list of upcoming events.
We have also invested in Frogbox for the 2024 season where all senior home matches are being live streamed on You Tube. As far as I am aware, this has been a great success, so thanks to everyone who got involved over the Winter months to make this a possibility. A great addition to the club.
If you’re not already aware, the club is hosting the Crossley Shield final on Sunday 18th August. If you are free and can spare an hour or two (or more) volunteering on the day, then please do let us know.
Senior Cricket
1st Team
A very promising start to the season soon faded for the 1st XI as we lost three league games on the bounce to close out May.
After the league executive had taken the sensible and necessary decision to postpone the first week of the season (this fixture being pushed back to September), we started our season at Shelf Northowram Hedge Top on April 27. Skipper Simon Wood had no hesitation in choosing to bowl first on a chilly day and we wasted no time in putting our hosts on the back foot, reducing them to 5 for 3. This soon became 15 for 4 and 32 for 5, as Alex Scholefield (3/24) removed three of the top five batters. There was never any real recovery and Tyson Illingworth (3/5), Lewis Firth (3/19) and Brad Holt (1/0) joined Alex in the wickets as we restricted to our opponents to just 48 all out.
Despite losing 4 wickets in the chase the result was never seriously in doubt and we registered 12 points to start the season, with Jamie Summerscales (14), Tom Wood (13) and Alex Scholefield (14) doing most of the work with the bat.
The following week saw us host Thornton, and with no losses for them in any competition last season, it’s fair to say few around the league expected us to come out on top. Lewis (2/48) took two wickets in two balls to leave Thornton 12 for 2 and when Alex (1/27) joined the party to leave them 16 for 3, there were the first signs that a positive result could be on the cards. However, there was always going to be a partnership and they put on 76 for the 4th wicket. A flurry of wickets followed, led by a career best 5 for 37 from Arun CK, and well supported by Brad (2/41). Despite another decent partnership of 44 for the 7th wicket, we were happy to bowl our visitors out for 173 and give ourselves an achievable chase.
We knew it wouldn’t be easy against the current champions and when three of the top four fell for single figures, it looked like it would instead be very difficult. Tom Wood (63) kept us in the hunt but when he was 4th to go with the score on 91, there was still a lot of work to do. Simon (49*) and Gnanam Arjuna (38) put on 58 to take us close and despite a couple more wickets falling, Simon was able to hit the winning runs with more than five overs to spare, an impressive 3-wicket victory.
That was as good as it got in the league as three defeats brought us back down to earth with something of a bump. We were well in the game at Bradshaw and looked set to repeat our chase of a 170-something score before disaster struck. Unnecessary wickets saw 92/1 turn into 170 all out, a 6 run defeat of our own making. The Woods were again our main contributors with the bat, with Tom scoring 51 and Simon 41*, after Lewis (4/48), Alex (2/32) and Tom (2/17) had done the earlier damage.
The following day did at least bring a better result as Brad’s brilliant 7 for 24 ran through the Augustinians batting line up in our Parish Cup 1st round fixture at The Astleys. Brad removed batters 2 through to 8 in a devastating spell, taking our opponents from 21/1 to 49/8, from which they would not recover. A mention also to Divakar Nagappan who took his first wicket for the club as we bowled out Augustinians for 60. Tom (40*) ensured we wasted no time in chasing down the target in 11.1 overs for the loss of just one wicket.
The following week’s league fixture sadly followed on from the Bradshaw game as we were shot out for 101 after losing the toss at home to Oxenhope. Simon (32) and Adam Fawcett (23) were our top scorers. We managed to reduce our visitors to 44 for 3 and give ourselves a glimmer of hope, but it was short lived as we lost by 6 wickets.
Almost unthinkably things got even worse the following week, in terms of score posted. 89 all out was never likely to cause much of a problem for our hosts Luddendenfoot, as they coped with the slightly tricky batting conditions far better and won by 6 wickets. Alex (3/35) returned the only performance worth noting on the day as we had an almost exact reversal in result compared to the same fixture last season.
Much work to do for the rest of the season.
2nd Team
Just the one blip so far for our 2XI who carry on from where they left off in 2023, despite a major scare in the first round of the Crossley Shield.
A very comfortable 9 wicket start to kick-off the season against Great Horton Park Chapel at the end of April was just the start we needed. Matty Keast the pick of the bowlers with 6 for 39 as we restricted our guests to 141 for 7 off their 45 overs. Mr Keast giving a nice “five fer” wave to the cameras after he’d taken his fifth wicket. The total didn’t prove too problematic to chase with Mark’s being the only wicket to fall, after having made 37 as we reached the 142 with just less than 10 overs left. Chris 30 not out and Greeny 53 not out including a 6 saw us home.
The only reverse of the season to date came away at Bridgeholme in our first away match of the season. Batting first, we made a below par 150 all out with Chris making 51, Mark 29 and with four players also making double figure scores. Bridgeholme won it in the final over of the match despite 3 for 17 from captain for the day, Matty Keast and four for 42 from Mike.
The league game the following week at home to Bradshaw was a lot more straight forward- rolling the opposition out for 90 (SHampy and Tyson taking 6 for 41 between them with Mark (47) and John (24) scoring the majority of the runs required before Dylan and Tony finished the job off.
The cup game the day after, away at Queensbury went right to the wire and beyond and into a super over. We bowled first, restricting our lower league opposition to 159 with Dylan being the pick of the bowlers taking 3 for 23 from his eight overs with Naman chipping in with two wickets. Our reply was indebted to 87 from Mark Fellows. We still needed 31 runs to win when Mark was the seventh player out. Cue some heroics from Captain, VC and last man Naman who survived seven balls adding 2 not out to 11 not out from Simon (including a six) and 16 from Matty. 1 run off the final ball of the game took us to the super over. Mark and Rob Larkin on 16 in the additional six balls we received, with Dylan taking the ball for the Queensbury over and expertly saw us through by five runs, taking a wicket in the process- phew!
Back to the league action the following Saturday and it was yet another nail bighting finish as we went from 81 for 4 chasing 107 to 97 for 8. Thankfully Rob Larkin and Matty held their nerve to see us over the line with Chris 50 being the mainstay of our innings on what we’ll call a tricky pitch. Earlier on in the day 4 for 15 from Tyson and 2 for 25 from Mike had put us in control after we had won the toss and asked our hosts to bat first.
And so onto the final match of May where table toppers Greetland (with four maximum point wins from four) were our guests. Tyson 2 for 19 and the skipper with 2 for 26 being our stand out bowlers with a couple of run outs thrown in there for good measure. The run chase ended up being pretty comfortable with Tony and Dylan putting on a third wicket partnership of 73 after both openers had fallen cheaply. Tony was there at the end on 70 with Robin ably assisting with 15 as we comfortably chased down the 137 we had been set with around six overs of the innings remaining.
Sunday Side
Just three matches for the Sunday first XI this season to date. The game on 28th away at Northowram HT was called off at 10.00 in the morning due to the rain. We were thumped by Northowram Fields a week later, despite a 95 opening wicket partnership between Chris and Dave with Chris going on to make his maiden senior 50 for the club. Fields chased down the total inside 22 overs, but played an ineligible player, so forfeited the game 20 points to zero- shame!
Our Rod Warhurst trophy campaign didn’t get off to the best of starts with a heavy defeat against (higher league opposition) Low Moor. 3 for 17 from Ajay and 2 for 1 from Sameer didn’t stop us conceding 271 runs in forty overs on what was a lovely day up at the ‘Stute. Robin top scored with 57 with Ajay making 27 and Phil Earle 26, but these were the only players to reach double figures and we were rolled out for 135 with 9 balls of the match remaining.
Birkby Rose Hill provided tough opposition in the second of our three round robin fixtures and 63 all out was never going to be enough despite 20 from Ken and 28* from Rohit. Two wickets from Finaly Charnock on debut softened the blow a little but the target was reached with seven wickets and thirteen overs in hand.
Junior Cricket
Friday nights really are a hive of activity up at the club with nearly 60 registered children playing cricket for the club across 4 age group teams. Recruitment has been great over the Winter months, so much so in that the sheer volume of players is causing weekly selection issues for at least three of the four coaches.
What hasn’t been great has been the match-night weather with more games falling foul to the weather than completed matches. Our Under 15 coach Richard has worked really hard to get at least two of these cancelled fixtures rearranged.
A special shout out to Libby Fellows who took a hat-trick for the Under 13 side against Outlane CC in one of the few matches we actually manged to get completed.
As we head into June, we’ll keep our fingers crossed for some much needed sunshine and better weather.
Social Events
We’ve had a really great start to the season with our social events. So far, we’ve had an opening night quiz, swap bingo and as recently as last weekend, we had an “All around the world evening”
You’ll no doubt have seen the Euro 2024 sweepstake we have up and running with two lots of 24 teams all sold generating £120 for the club with the list of teams for those who have taken part up in the clubhouse.
Coming up in June we will be opening the club to show the three England group games:-
Serbia 16/06/2024 – 8:00
Denmark 20/06/2024 – 5:00
Slovenia 25/06/2024 – 8:00
There’s going to be a single-wicket competition up at the club on 9th June with the now legendary race night hot on the heels on Saturday 22nd June – full have been issued but please do shout if you need any further information.
As a reminder, the bar is open every Friday for junior practice and there’s Play your cards right up at the club every Saturday evening following the conclusion of the 1st or 2nd team match played on that day.
Dave and Lewis