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Senior Cricket
If someone has seen that big orangey yellow thing that usually sits in the sky providing warmth and light then please let me know as I sit here on a very wet evening on the last Monday of July, only having the time to write this as yet another fixture gets cancelled because of the Great British Summer. The junior season is coming to a rapid close, with the 13’s finishing off the season on 17th of August with 9’s and 11’s closing their respective seasons off on 10th and 7th August.
A disappointing end to July for the 1’s with a defeat at Mytholmroyd, but we still sit 5th in the Premier Division with aspirations of breaking into the top three. The second team got the job done in their Crossley Shield semi-final and will now face Warley CC at Sowerby St Peters on 20th August in the final. The league form hasn’t suffered too much despite the one blip in July and we sit comfortably in third.
The weather has had a big impact on the Sunday Team with only one game being completed in July and another abandoned half-way through the second innings.
1st Team
July was a positive month for the 1st XI, who won three and lost one of the four matches which were able to be completed. Our trip to league leaders Thornton unfortunately fell victim to the weather.
We started the month at Luddendenfoot and skipper Simon Wood won the toss giving our bowlers the opportunity to try to extract as much as possible from the damp conditions. Lewis Firth and Alex Scholefield were able to do that and Lewis’s maiden 1st XI ‘5-fer’ (5/26), coupled with Alex’s 3/49 did the majority of the damage as ‘Foot’ were bowled out for 81. We were 32/2 in reply but Sam Hinchliffe (28*) joined opener Jamie Summerscales (43*) as the pair saw us home for no further loss; a 12-nil points victory.
Booth visited The Astleys the following week and we were asked to bat first on another damp day. We totalled a more-than-useful 179/7 in 29.1 overs, and due to the quirks of the Halifax rain rules, Booth were set a target of 176 in just one ball fewer. Alex had led the way with 55, well supported by Gnanam’s 35 off 18 balls, and the rest of the top five batters who all reached at least 18. Alex was the star with the ball too, dismissing the entire Booth top-six by the time the score read 92. Dan Sykes (4/46) did the rest of the damage to help record a brilliant 39-run win.
We had another home game against Blackley next up, and yet again the rain did its best to spoil proceedings. However, being 63/1 after 18.5 overs did nothing to dissuade us from making every effort to get back out on the pitch, and we managed to do so just in the nick of time. A 25-over game was now the brief, and Arun CK’s three consecutive sixes were hugely important in us recording a final total of 125/5, after Tom Wood (25) and Alex (47) had set us up nicely earlier on. Lewis (4/38) was again in the wickets and all four who bowled took at least one, with Arun contributing a smart run out of the Blackley opener, where he was able to run to the wickets rather than choosing to throw.
At this point, we sat a creditable fourth in the league table, but the Thornton wash out came next followed swiftly by the month’s only defeat – at Mytholmroyd. We chose to bowl first on a pitch that looked like it might offer a bit more assistance than a typical ‘Royd one, and despite scores of 37 or more from three of their top four, we managed to fight back well to restrict the home side. We were content with 190 all out at the halfway point, with Rishav Tandon having done the bulk of the damage with an impressive 5/30. This included one ‘googly’ which would definitely be an SBCI ‘Ball of the Season’ contender, were such a competition to exist.
Though we felt well in the game at this stage, we were soon struggling when Jamie, having scored 41 of our 57, was dismissed to leave us four wickets down and still needing a further 134 to win. Unfortunatel, from here, we never really recovered and the innings fell away to 142 all out, a disappointing 48-run loss.
That defeat leaves us fifth in the Premier Division table, with seven wins and five losses. There are still a further seven games to go, starting with our attempt to do the ‘double’ over last year’s winners Copley at The Astleys this Saturday 5 August.
Season to date statistics
Batting
Lewis Firth – 174 runs @43.50
Sam Hinchliffe – 344 runs @34.40
Jamie Summerscales – 352 runs @29.33
Bowling – (minimum of 15 wickets)
Alexander Scholefield – 29 wickets @ 18.07
Tom Wood 19 wickets @ 19.11
Lewis Firth 29 wickets @ 20.21
Fielding
Gnanam Arjun – 3 fielding points
Tom Wood & Sam Hinchliffe – 2 fielding points
2nd Team
4 wins from 5 for the 2nd XI in the league and progression to the Crossley Shield cup final for the first time in 7 years.
We started off July with a comfortable win against the current league holders, Sowerby St Peters as we chased down 188 with 10 overs to spare. Rob L, Tyson and Waqas taking 8 of the ten wickets to fall and in reply, contributions, yet again from our opening pair (44 and 37 respectively from John and Mark -more to come from them later!!) and 73 not out at better than a run a ball from Chris Dalby, helped out by Tyson’s 17 not out from 14 balls saw us over the line with plenty of batting left.
The day after, we returned to the ‘Stute to finish off the remaining 10 or so overs of our cup quarter final game against Mytholmroyd. From memory, our guests needed 35 ish runs with 4 wickets left when the game was halted the previous week, so and evenly balanced contest. Not to worry, the final four wickets were taken with the addition of only 16 runs to see us through to the final – Mike Veitch the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 21.
Back to the league and our first match of the second half of the season and it was off to Bridgeholme. Winning the toss and electing to bowl first, we had our hosts at 122 for 9, before a 10th wicket partnership of 40 took the to 162 all out. Waqas the undoubted star of the show with the ball (5 for 36) with Keasty and Tyson taking the other five wickets between them. A little wobble as 56 for 2 became 56 for 3, but 68 not out from Mark, a run a ball 37 from TK and 25 not out from Tyson saw us bring home the full points with seven overs left of the match.
We had a disappointing reversal away at 2nd in the table Blackley in the middle of the month. We bowled our hosts out for 143 – wickets shared around between all four bowlers used – M Keast the pick with 4 for 32. We were quicky 10 for 2 and then 58 for 6 as we had a rare batting collapse, with only Albie, Dylan, Jonathan and Matty making double figures with the bat as we were bowled out for 99.
Thankfully, we quickly found our form again the day after and swept Thornton aside in our cup semi-final. Rob Larkin the undoubted star of the show with the ball with 5 for 21, with Waqas and Chris also taking two wickets each. Double figure scores from everyone in the bat ensured that despite being 56 for 2 and then 57 for 3, we romped home with 6 wickets in hand and with more than 15 overs left.
We gained some lost ground on the top two the following Saturday as ours was the only game to be completed at home to Great Horton Park Chapel. Unsurprisingly, we won the toss and elected to bowl first. Our opening bowling partnership of Simon and Chris bowled ten maidens between them and took five wickets in the 26 overs they bowled which gave us a great platform. Rob L and Matty then finished the job with our guests for the day being cleaned up for 113. A very rare failure from our opening batting pair saw us reduced to 5 for 2 before a third wicket stand of 89 between Chris (68) and Dylan (24) took us to within sight of our target. We then lost 5 wickets for the addition of only 18 runs to make it interesting, but Mike, Jonathan and Tyson saw us get the runs we needed for yet another 12 point haul.
And so onto the final match of July. Mark and Greeny went out to bat, Chris and Dylan had their pads on waiting for the first wicket to fall and they still had their pads on some 45 overs later as both openers carried their bats as we scored 245 for the loss of precisely zero wickets. Greeny took the lead early on with Mark perhaps only on 19 after 17 overs, but Mark then found the scoring touch and accelerated the innings nicely. There were a few chances given along the way, but none were taken and Mark raced to his second century of the season, before pushing on the accelerator as the innings drew to a close and ended up on an unbeaten 140. If there is a disappointing element to your team scoring 245 without loss, then it was that John narrowly missed on joining his opening partner on three figures, and had to settle for 97 not out. Well played gents.
As you can imagine, Mytholmroyd were in a bit of a state of shock and despite a couple of decent partnerships, they were never up with the required run rate. Two wickets for Tyson, three for Chris and three for the returning Brad Holt. Just to round off his day, Mark had the last wicket with a throw to Greeny for a run out. What a day.
Season to date statistics
Batting
Mark Fellows – 732 runs @73.20
Chris Dalby – 663 runs @55.25
John Greenwood – 469 runs @36.08
Bowling – (minimum of 15 wickets)
Waqas Suffyan – 20 wickets @ 13.65
Rob Larkin 28 wickets @ 14.54
Tyson Illingworth 32 wickets @ 15.88
Fielding
Matthew Keast – 4 fielding points
Dylan Evans – 3.5 fielding points
Sunday Side
The Sunday side continue to struggle, but in all but two matches this season have named a starting XI without having to rely on 2nd team players doubling up from the previous day, which is a good position to be in, with regards to player numbers.
July’s is a short and sweet update. We were 38 /4 chasing an unlikely 275 to win when the rain intervened and saw us take 8 points from the game.
The following two weeks were abandoned without us having to even get in our cars to make the trips to Queensbury and Outlane, which left us with one fully completed game against top of the table Illingworth. We made 101 for 7 in our 40 overs, which was never going to be enough. 47 not out from Dave and double figure scores from Ken, Rohit and Baasit got us to three figures. Two wickets from Greg in reply were not enough, however and we were done and dusted by 5:15. Must say thank you to Dave Grundy who stepped away from playing (once again) to ensure we had an umpire on the day.
Season to date statistics
Batting
David Brown – 143 runs @47.67
Rohit Singh – 149 runs @16.56
Paul Collins – 65 runs @16.25
Bowling – (minimum of 6 wickets)
Greg Boocock – 14 wickets @ 18.21
Sudanshu Sharma 6 wickets @ 19.00
Richard Conway 8 wickets @ 30.00
Fielding
Charlie Wesencraft – 3 fielding points
Greg Boocock – 2 fielding points
Junior Cricket
Under 9’s
We have a very young side, who will be able to play at this age group for at least another couple of years to come. Additionally, we have a good set of parents who are willing to help out. 2024 and beyond looks more than promising.
Under 11’s
We suffered a disappointing cup semi-final loss against Warley, despite looking very good in the quarter-final. We tend to lose more matches when batting second, but it has been a very good season overall, and the majority will now progress onto the Under 13’s side in 2024.
Under 13’s
Just the three games for our Under 13 side in July. We finished our cup round-robin matches off with a defeat away at Elland, had a week off and then back into league fixtures for the two remaining games in July. Despite two heavier than usual losses to Low Moor and Elland (again) we hope to finish the season on a high with three fixtures remaining of the 2023 season.
Just a reminder that the junior presentation evening will be held up at the club on Friday 8th September. Further details to be announced nearer to the time, but any club members who are willing to do a couple of hours on the bar, then please let me know.
Dave and Lewis