It’s been a really busy May up at the club, with both the junior and senior seasons in full flow, and the clubhouse being a hive of activity. Our first XI sit proudly at the top of the 1XI Premier Division and have secured their progress into the latter stages of the Parish Cup. Our second team have won their last two league games to give themselves a bit of breathing space at the wrong end of the league table, but exited the Crossley Shield at the second hurdle. It’s been a slow yet tough month results‑wise for our Sunday side, but the real story is the progress that our young players are making. They're learning quickly, showing real resilience, and taking big steps forward every week, with another two players making their Sunday team debuts this month.
We also hosted the Halifax Under 15’s Taverners side on 28th of the month, as they comfortably beat their Sheffield equivalents. A big thank you to all involved on the day who ensured the match ran smoothly.
A massive congratulations to our very own Libby Fellows who, at still only 14 years old played for England Under 19’s women’s development side, taking a wicket against Surrey 2XI. And just to back it up, Libby also went onto captain the Yorkshire performance pathways XI on the final day of the month, at Brighouse CC and led her side to a five wicket win over their Durham equivalents. Libby took two for eight in her five over spell and ended up with 6 not out with the bat to see her side to victory. Superb stuff, Libby!
On 24th of May and in glorious conditions up at the Stute’ the undoubted highlight of the season to date was the return to action for John Greenwood after a 13-month absence. Great to see John back out on the field and all of his family were there to play his first game since April 2025. Welcome back Greeny.
We’ve had both Dylan Larkin and Ashan Yuvarajkumar make their senior debuts for the club in May, with both Dylan and Ashan having been part of the junior set up for many years- congratulations gents.
And last, but by no means least, it’s a massive congratulations to the newly wedded Lewis and Harriet who tied the knot on 28th of May at the Coniston Hotel in Skipton. Best wishes from everyone at the club to the new Mr and Mrs Firth.
League match reports 1 and 2XI
SBCI CC May review- 1XI - league
SBCI CC May review- 2XI - league
Parish Cup & Crossley Shield
The first and second XI knockout competitions started in May with the first two rounds played in this month.
Round 1
Success for both teams as the 2nd team won their first game of the season in a really good game of cricket at home to Warley/Elland, which went down to the final couple of overs. Another toss won and we elected to field and had the first half of the Warley/Elland innings all our own way. Not in terms of wickets taken but restricting the run rate which meant that at the halfway stage, our guests for the day to 56 for 3. Matty the pick of the bowlers with 4 for 33 and he would have easily had five wickets if we’d held onto all of our chances. Mike bowled well in his nine over spell without the reward his bowling deserved, and Simon was economical as ever opening the bowling with Aqeel. Our opening 18 overs only went for 45 runs- a great effort. Some middle to late order big hitting took the opponents score past where we would have liked it to have been, but on a good wicket and with a dry outfield, it was very much game on.
Jonathan and Richard got us off to the perfect start with an unbroken first wicket partnership that was only “ended” when Richard had to go off in a bizarre incident which saw the ball ricochet off the stumps and into the side of his head. Thankfully, his batting glasses appeared to take the brunt of the impact and a trip to A&E gave him all clear and he was able to drive home. Despite the loss of Jonathan when the score was on 107 for 1- Tony got his season going with a bang with 75 from 69 balls, which is exactly what we needed. 26 were needed when he fell, but the skipper and Rohit batted sensibly to get us within striking distance with Tyson hitting the winning boundary with the first ball of the penultimate over of the game.
It was a lot more straightforward affair for our 1XI as we despatched Sowerby St Peters for the second time in as many days, to progress to round 2 of the Parish Cup. Batting first, we made 156/7 with Jamie carrying on his excellent start to the season, making 80 out of that total. Double figure contributions from a further 5 players took us up to a more than testing total, especially when we had bowled the opposition out for 87 on the previous day. They’d only go on to score 10 more than on the Saturday as we recorded a comfortable 59 run victory. Tom with 4 for 11 doing the damage, with all of the other bowlers taking at least one wicket. Special mention to Alex who only went for 10 runs from his 9 over allocation.
Round 2
One win and one loss in round two as our first XI got through in the final over of their Parish Cup game at home to Thornton, but the 2nd team exit the Crossley Shield at their earliest point in some years with a disappointing loss to Shelf/Northowram.
A good toss to win for the 1st XI as we elected to bowl first and had Thornton at 5 for 1, 19 for 2 and then 42 for 4 as Alexander (5 for 30) ripped through the Thornton top order. Lewis had the other Thornton opener for a duck, courtesy of a catch from Chris. Josh Hutchinson is always a danger with the bat and he would go on to make 84 out of the oppositions score of 136 all out. Thornton’s only other two players to get to double figures were their number 8 and 9 as the last five wickets fell for not many runs, Will and Tom with two wickets a piece to wrap up the Thornton tail and the innings and we’d need 137 to win to progress to round 3.
Well, we got there, but just and with two wickets in hand and with four balls left in the game. Losing both openers before the score had reached 20 wasn’t ideal, but Alex and Chris steadied the ship before the latter was out for 21 and with 70 still required. Thankfully, Alex, supported at first by Dan and Gnanam and latterly Simon got us to within striking distance of our target before Alex was the seventh wicket to fall with 25 runs still required. Despite the loss of a further wicket, Simon and Lewis came together to bat sensibly, before Simon sent the second ball of the last over to the square leg boundary to end the game on an unbeaten 30 and send us into the third round of the cup.
It was a case of what might have been for the 2’s as their Crossley Shield campaign came to a premature end away at Shelf/Northowram. At 17 for 2 – thanks to wickets for Matt and Aqeel, we made a great start, but the game seemed to have been taken away from us by a 49 ball 68 from the opposition openers. As cricket tends to have a habit of doing, this one ebbed and flowed and we worked really hard to get ourselves back into the game, thanks to some excellent bowling and great fielding. Phil and Rob were the pick of our bowlers taking six wickets, but in the process, also really slowed the Shelf scoring rate. 13 overs in the middle of the opposition innings only yielded 19 runs with Rob taking 3 for 19 and Phil 3 for 25. Tyson was the other SBCI player to take wickets and we’d be needing 161 to make progress into the latter stages of the competition.
Unfortunately, and against some more than decent bowling from the home side, only Jonathan, Dave and Tony got into double figures with the bat as we collapsed from 47 for 3 to 93 all out inside 26 overs. Jonathan and Dave had got us off to a decent start, but once those two had lost their wickets, then it was a steady procession of falling wickets, as we lost our last 5 wickets for 18 runs. Tony top scored with 27 and was the penultimate man out as we fell a way short of reaching our victory target.
20/20 Side
It was a disappointing start to our three team round robin away at Booth, as our hosts knocked off the required 98 runs for victory after 11 overs. Jamie (34 from 13 balls) and Will (32 from 35) were the only players to record double figure scores as we slumped from 36 for no wicket to 97 all out without using our overs up.
A wicket for Tom and a most welcome run out for Will aside, then Booth had few issues in getting the runs required for victory.
Sunday Side
Not many fixtures in May for the Sunday team. Our first fixture of the month against Armitage Bridge was rained off without a ball being bowled and with two weeks of inactivity on 10th and 17th May owing to first round of the Parish Cup/Crossley Shield and then a bye week because of an odd number of teams in the division, we didn’t get a game in until 24th of the month.
The match against Slaithwaite the following week was all about John and his return to action. On the field, Slaithwaite were the better side and ran out comfortable winners. Dylan Larkin on Sunday team debut with an unbeaten 15 and Dave with 23, were the only players to reach double figures as we didn’t recover from being 16 for 2 and 24 for 3 against some high-quality Sunday section bowling.
The game was done by 4:20 as the Slaithwaite batters got to their target of 78 inside 12 overs. Jack and Noah had a wicket a piece and the skipper on his birthday took two wickets to ensure that we, at least, took a couple of points from the game.
On the final day of the month, we played Oakworth at the picturesque Haworth cricket club and put up a great performance on a day when we had 33 players playing senior cricket. Dylan and Ashan made their third team debuts. Skipper Collins won the toss and elected to field. The Oakworth middle order did the damage with numbers 3,4 and 5 contributing 172 of their 233 runs. Lucas bowled well again, without reward, with Harri, Paul and Ashan taking the wickets to fall. Fin and Robin also had a run out each to their name.
83 from Robin, opening the batting and an unbeaten 46 from John were the mainstays of our innings as we closed on 195 for 47 from our 40 overs- some 39 runs shy of our target, with Sammer the only other player to get into double figures with the bat. 35 extras helped our cause and we managed to pick up 8 points on the day from a losing draw.
Junior Cricket
Under 9’s – two games played in May – one win and one defeat.
Under 11’s - two games played in May – one win and one defeat.
Under 13’s- two games played in May- one win and two defeats.
Under 15’s – two games played in May, both, sadly, ending in defeats.
All Stars started in May with the course up at the club on a Sunday morning having the “no vacancies” sign-up for the first time in quite a number of years- great to see.
Photo used – courtesy of Joe Bognar- @howzat_57.
Dave and Lewis
