And just like that, the 2026 season is over, the ground has been put to bed, nets are down and we’re all taking a well-deserved rest.
The 1st eleven secured their best topflight finish in 14 years, ending the season in third place and narrowly missing out on 2nd place and some silverware. Both our second XI and the Sunday side secured their status in their divisions, winning matches on the penultimate and final matches of the season respectively to ensure no relegation dramas.
Thanks to the 1st team for taking the sightscreens down post Illingworth game and the small, but very select band of helpers who managed to get the wicket scarified, re-seeded, loamed and covered as well as getting the sightscreens down and the covers off the covers. The ground is still looking great even in its post-season state, and the grass continues to grow at an alarming rate!!
Libby Fellows continues to represent the club at a county level and on 20th September was involved in the ECB Girls Under 18 County Cup final for Yorkshire. Libby was the only Yorkshire player to take a wicket as Hampshire reached their required target of 154, but well-done Libby (again) for getting to a final and at least another two years at this age group, so plenty of positives despite the result.
1st Team
After a fantastic finish to August, the 1st XI travelled to the penultimate game at Bradshaw hoping to continue their good form and push for a potential Lindley Moor trophy win (most points by any 1st XI excluding division winners, across the last six matches). If results went our way, a 2nd place finish in the league was also possible.
We won the toss and asked our hosts to bat first, and despite starting well with the ball Bradshaw negotiated their way safely to 42/0. However, Lewis (3-37) and the skipper (2-26) soon struck several times in a short time frame to leave Bradshaw wobbling at 63/5. Tom (3-30) and Will (2-38) came into the attack, and we were able to largely keep our stranglehold on the Bradshaw batting as they were dismissed for 139 in 43.4 overs.
In response, we lost Tom with the score on just 13, but a 52-run partnership from Jamie and Alex took us to 65/1 and seemingly in command. Frustratingly, a flurry of wickets left us 96/6 and with significant work still to do on a pitch which offered assistance to the bowlers. Mike (11*) joined Simon (35) and the pair put on 42 for the seventh wicket before Simon was unfortunate to be trapped LBW to a ball which didn’t offer much in the way of bounce. Still, they had done the hard work and we made it home at 142/7, with three and a half overs to spare.
Other results, including weather related abandonments, meant that a win in our rain-reduced final match of the season at home to Illingworth would have seen us win the Lindley Moor trophy and finish second in the Premier Division. Sadly, we were to finish an agonising three runs short of our victory target and miss out. We again won the toss and elected to bowl, and though the early bowling didn’t produce many wickets, nor did it allow our visitors to get off to a flyer. Will was the top wicket taker with 4/55, and restricting Illingworth to 132/5 off 28 overs – less than five an over – was a good team effort.
Unfortunately, despite Jamie’s 55 not out, and 20-a-piece from Tom and Alex, we faltered at the last and failed to get the 10 runs we required from the final two overs. It was a disappointing end to the season but shouldn’t take away from the great efforts of the team throughout the year.
We won twice the amount of league games that we did last season (14 vs 7) and went from ninth place to third, showcasing a significant improvement by all concerned. The re-signing of Will after a number of years away, plus Dan Keighley’s return to regular first XI action made the team stronger, and we’ll look to push on to better things next season. Thanks to all the players who have contributed this season – be they regulars or those helping on occasion. Thanks also go to Sam, Adrian and the two Dave’s for scoring for us throughout the season, and to all those who have contributed on the bar, in the tearoom, or on the ground – we couldn’t do it without you.
2nd Team
Premier Division cricket secured for yet another season for the second team in the penultimate match of the season and our final home game of 2026. We got the job done against Warley/Elland with a comfortable 46 run win after having been asked to bat first and having been 4 for 2, with our visitors for the day making the most of the early, bowler friendly conditions. Richard and John then steadied the ship with a watchful 28 run partnership for the 3rd wicket, with John and Tony then putting on 36 after Richard had departed. With Warley still keeping the run rate down, we needed some middle order impetus and the skipper and Jack certainly provided that with a 84 run partnership for the 5th wicket, and at a good tempo as well with Tyson scoring 47 from 30 balls, with 30 of those coming in 6’s and Jack scoring a run a ball 28. Both players turned the strike over really well with Tyson getting on top of a tiring opposition bowling attack. Unusually, there was no SBCI wag of the tail and once Jack was 7th man out with the score on 161, we only managed to add one more run for the last three wickets and we’d need to defend 162 to secure our Premier Division status.
And we did it comfortably as Warley/Elland struggled to recover from 9 for 2 and then 11 for 3, and they eventually were all out for 116 with just about ten overs of the game remaining. Tyson, perpetrator in chief with 6 for 36 from a 12.5 over spell which swung the game in our favour. A couple of difficult, dropped chances whilst we were in the field, but thankfully, these didn’t cost us. Simon had yet another two wickets from an eleven over spell and Rob took two for 16 from a six over burst as we looked to really put the pressure on the opposition. Two catches for John, Jonathan and Richard with Tyson fittingly ending the game when the Warley/Elland number 11 was caught behind by John with our visitors being 46 runs short of their target, meaning that the last game of the season away at double winners Illingworth can be enjoyed rather than endured.
Well, the last game of the season turned out to be a damp squib in more ways than one. Doubtful that we ever should have started in the first place in pretty heavy rain. Skipper for the day, Simon called incorrectly and we were asked to bat first. Let’s keep this brief. Only Richard and Robin made it to double figures with the bat as we were rolled out for 51 inside 27 overs. Illingworth made light work of chasing this down with the runs they needed obtained inside 8 overs. Young Lucas the only bowler with any success taking the only wicket thanks to a good catch by Matthew at mid-wicket. The result mattered not a jot with safety secured the previous week.
Sunday Side
Despite a Sunday morning defeat in Bingley on a very wet penultimate game of the season against promotion chasing Crossflatts, the other teams in the relegation dogfight failed to pick up significantly more points that the half-dozen we did, meaning that we require a solitary point on the final Sunday of the season, away at Slaithwaite to ensure our division 3 safety.
An early start with a 10:00 start in Bingley and a 30 over game that started in the rain, was interrupted for an hour as the rain became too heavy for us to continue, and it ended in glorious early autumnal sunshine as Fin and Lucas saw out the last over between them to ensure we collected an extra point from the game.
We won the toss and elected to field first. We took a wicket in the first over of the game, thanks to some good glovework from Rohit as the Crossflatts opener edged the third ball of the day from Lucas into our wicketkeepers’ gloves. That brought the leading run scorer in our division to the crease, and he showed why, with 70 from 63 balls, which effectively put the game beyond our reach. A second wicket stand of 70 and then a fourth wicket stand of 84 took our hosts to 180 from their reduced 27 over allocation. Rob was the pick of the bowlers with 2 for 27 with Fin taking the other wicket to fall. We stuck together in spite of the dark overhead conditions and the persistent rain, with Dylan Larkin being the outstanding fielder on the day. A mention for Matt who took a great catch above his head on the long on boundary and Rohit who had two victims behind the stumps.
The first two balls of our reply were sent to the boundary as we looked to chase down an unlikely 181 for victory, but the momentum failed to build, and we had to settle for not being bowled out to ensure we took an additional point away from the match. Dave had 20, Rohit 10 from 8 balls, before he was harshly given leg before wicket. Matt made 10, but it was thanks to Rob Larkin who recorded his first half-century of the season to dig us out of trouble and get us to the three-figure mark. 51 from 57 balls with 38 of those coming in boundaries. He was out stumped in the penultimate over of the game, whilst trying to get us to 125 runs which would have given us a further batting point, but our 10th wicket pair ensured no further wickets fell to give us six points and a (virtually) stress free final weekend of the season.
The Sunday side put in their most polished team performance of the season to blow away any relegation fears and finish the season with their third 20-point win of the campaign. During the run up to the game, Lightcliffe had mysteriously re-gained the eight points they had had taken off them for the concession of a fixture on the August Bank Holiday weekend, meaning that we’d now need 8 points from the fixture away at Slaithwaite to secure our division 3 status.
And that we did. Before the game, we stood with the Slaithwaite players and members to remember the 1-year anniversary of the sad passing of 16-year-old Alfie Firth, who was a junior player at the Huddersfield based club. A sombre moment on what was otherwise a very happy day for us and a stark reminder that there are more important things to life than cricket.
Dave and John opened the batting and after a watchful few overs on a tricky surface and against a bowling attack that wasn’t giving away much, John cracked three boundaries on the spin to get us on the front foot. Despite both openers falling in the space of a few deliveries, we had a solid platform on which to build. We were indebted to Phil who made a very watchful 52 (with only three boundaries) to anchor the innings on the way to our total of 146. 17 extras helped us along the way and 10 from Matt as well as some quick runs from our ninth wicket pair of Sameer and Naman got us upto a very defendable score on a big Slaithwaite pitch.
146 proved to be enough, and this was thanks to a great bowling and fielding performance. Our opening pair of Matt and Rob bowled 15.2 overs between them, only conceding 28 runs, to really put our hosts on the back foot, and in the first 20 overs, Slaithwaite only managed to find the boundary on one occasion. Despite the tight bowling, wickets were, at first, hard to come by, until Naman got both the Slaithwaite openers in relatively quick succession to reduce them to 41 for 2. Akhil then came onto bowl and took 1 for 32 from his eight overs as Slaithwaite looked to up the run rate. Phil then turned the game even more in our favour with 4 wickets from his 7 over spell. All four wickets were courtesy of sharp glovework behind the wickets from John, who whipped the bails off for four stumpings. The skipper then came to the party, bravely putting himself forward to ball as the Slaithwaite 8th wicket pair had started to hit out. One over, five runs and a wicket as Phil held on at deep mid-wicket in the gathering gloom. Rob and Matt worked together to run out the opposition number 10 as they looked for a second run that simply wasn’t there and Matt finally put an end to any relegation fears as he bowled the Slaithwaite skipper with the second ball of his eighth over with 22 runs still needed and only 8 balls left in the match. A great team performance to secure our place in Division three of the Sunday league.
Social Events
End of season Junior presentations
Under 13’s & 15’s- Friday 25th September
Under 9’s & 11’s- Friday 2nd October
Annual Dinner
64 attendees for the 2026 end of season dinner. Still room if anyone else is interested. Menu choices and payment are now due please. Any queries or questions, please get in touch with Dave.
Dave and Lewis
