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SBCI 2022 – August 2022 review
Three weekends of cricket left in the 2022 season, with our Sunday side finishing off their league campaign this Sunday with a home game against Northowram Fields.
Our first team need one win to secure their Premier Division status and will look to get the points they require at home to Great Horton Park Chapel on Saturday.
Our second team are well in the mix to bring home the 2nd Team Premier Division title and they have a potential winner takes all match away at Mytholmroyd this weekend.
Best of luck and finish strongly to all three sides.
The club also hosted a very successful junior finals day on the recent Bank Holiday Sunday. We were blessed with some lovely weather and a massive thank you to all of the volunteers who made this happen. Barkisland, Blackley and Lightcliffe were the respective winners of the Under 9, 11 and 13 finals. The club also made a profit in excess of £700, so a great day all round.
Finally, its best wishes to Mike Veitch whose cricket season has been curtailed following an argument between him, his bike, gravity and some tarmac – with gravity and tarmac coming out on top. No lasting damage and a full recovery expected, but Mike will be out for the remaining three matches, with a long road to recovery ahead of him. Get well soon Veitchy.
Senior Cricket
1st Team
August was a month of mixed fortunes for the 1st XI, who won two and lost two of the games played. Disappointing defeats to Sowerby Bridge and Mytholmroyd were at least precluded by wins against Triangle and Warley, the two teams directly below us in the league table at the time of writing.
The Sowerby Bridge defeat, by 95 runs, was a product of some at times wayward bowling, coupled with a sub-par attempt at chasing Bridge’s very useful 216/9 off their 45 overs. Olly Benson (4/57) was in the wickets and only Adam Fawcett’s 35 (despite a blow to the head from some short-pitched bowling straight out of the sun) provided any real resistance.
The Mytholmroyd trip the following week saw an improvement in the bowling but for no real reward. A luckless opening spell, with several edges and mishits finding their way to the boundary, got ‘Royd off to the start they needed and despite Dan Sykes (3/67) and Tom Wood (2/78) somewhat pegging them back, the hosts still posted 255. Olly Benson (2/55) and Lewis Firth (3/50) did return to clean up the tail and so despite chasing more than we would have liked, we did at least get the three points for bowling them out, Arun CK aiding this with a couple of good catches.
At 47/5 in the chase there was a question over whether we would even make 100, but Rob Larkin’s brisk 44 off 41 balls, which included an array of different shots, and two mammoth sixes, saw us well over that line. Unfortunately, though, the last three wickets fell for just one run (a wide off the final stumping), and we finished 137 all out, a defeat of 118 runs.
As previously mentioned, the month was not all doom and gloom, and had started in much better fashion. We bowled out Triangle for 143, after Alex Scholefield had taken the first five wickets to fall, to leave them 22/5. He finished with 6/83 and Lewis took 4/31 as we set ourselves a chase that most sides would fancy at the small Grassy Bottom ground.
Despite wickets falling with some regularity, we always looked just ahead of the game thanks in no small part to 76 not out from Tom Wood (88b; 9x 4s; 5x 6s), who was also well supported by skipper Simon Wood (30). We recorded a four-wicket win as Tom finished the game with a six.
The following week we welcomed Warley, and it was a case of third time lucky in matches against them this season. Tom continued where he had left off with an exemplary knock of 149 off just 131 balls to lead us to a fairly imposing 268/7. He was supported by Alex (32), Simon (31) and Arun (32) and even a few late wickets didn’t really derail our innings too significantly.
In defending our score, Alex also continued where he had left off the week before, dismissing the entire Warley top five to finish with 5/30. Lewis (3/46) and Olly (2/43) were also in the wickets, as four catches from Simon helped to polish off the Warley innings at 135 all out, a 133 run win.
A mixed month, no doubt, but key wins have put us in the position where we should be able to preserve our Premier Division status in the month of September.
2nd Team
No doubt that the second team have been hit by absences because of holidaying players, but they remain in touch at the top of the table.
The first game in August saw a tie with our nearest and dearest, Warley, in a low scoring game up at the Stute. Batting first, we were all out for 156, with the mainstay being 61 from John Greenwood, who has hit a rich vein of form for the 2’s just at the right time. 26 and 17 from Brad and Tyson respectively helped us to our final total, but we didn’t use our full 45 overs. Brad and Tyson were at it again when we took to the field with 6 wickets between them, but a 49 run 9th wicket partnership saw Warley requiring 2 off the last ball to seal an unlikely win. Thankfully, just a single was taken and we had our second senior match ending in a tie this season (following the 1’s away at Booth in May).
Normal service resumed seven days later with a dominant display away at Triangle. Chris Dalby the pick of the bowlers, as he cleaned up the ‘Angle tail with 3 for 22. Tyson also had three wickets and Matty with 2 for 16 as we restricted our hosts to a well below par 166 all out. Greeny made 72 not out and both Mark and Dollars chipped in with 34 a piece to take us to a comfortable victory by eight wickets and with 7.3 overs left.
A much depleted side made the trip up to Northowram the following week and were well beaten. Skipper Keast, Chris, Robin and Greg all in the wickets. In reply, another unbeaten half-century from John (75) was the mainstay of our batting display with able support from Chris (38) and the evergreen Mr Grundy (12 not out) as the only two batters to make it to double figures.
The biggest disappointment of August was the reverse at home to Sowerby Bridge, despite being able to field a much stronger side.
Sowerby Bridge made 188 for 6 with Tyson taking three wickets and Phil Earle, on second team debut taking a couple as well. We ended up 24 runs short of our target despite 69 not out from Tony, 27 from Dylan and 28 from Matty.
With three games to go we sit 5 points behind Mytholmroyd with 36 points at stake. All to play for lads.
Sunday Side
Its three defeats in as many matches for our Sunday 1st XI, but the bigger picture here is, of course, providing a platform for our juniors to get a game of cricket on a Sunday, and to provide support to the other two sides when we are short of players. If relegation comes our way following the final game of the season, then so be it. We have a batch of exciting Under 13 year olds who’ll be wanting to cut their teeth in senior cricket, so a drop down a division, might not be a bad thing.
Highlights of August were half-centuries for the Keast brothers in the early starting game against Sowerby Bridge, along with 2 wickets in as many balls from Mutteb. Star of the month was undoubtedly Albie Earle who hit 93 with the bat on the Bank Holiday Sunday as he and Stanley Robinson put on 94 for the last wicket to get us within 28 runs of a famous win. Earlier in the day, Ajay had finished with a more than impressive 2 for 16 off his 9 overs with the ball.
Junior Cricket
Our Under 11’s finished the 2022 season off at the beginning of August with a narrow loss to Low Moor in the semi-finals of the softball Collinson cup. A great achievement with a young side and with players absent because of holidays.
The junior end of season presentation / party will be held up at the club on Friday 23rd September. Start date to be confirmed closer to the time.
If anyone has a spare hour or two to man the bar on the above date, then please let Browny know.
Lewis & Dave