The first Sunday of Premiership-only cricket saw Hoylandswaine utterly obliterate the team batting record with a mammoth 460-4 score away at Thongsbridge. Elsewhere Delph & Dobcross crept home in a thrilling one-wicket win away at Shepley while both Broad Oak and Honley made it a double-winning double-header weekend with emphatic home wins
Drakes Premiership
The Premiership team runs record for a single match is one that’s been broken several times over the last few seasons, but Hoylandswaine completely smashed it and set a new record which surely won’t be beaten for a few seasons to come. They were fielding a full strength side who are totally on song at the moment and kept up their unbeaten record in fine style against shell shocked Thongsbridge. You need to look back to 2015 and find the last record breaking innings score which was Barkisland’s 424-4 score at home to Moorlands. Hoylandswaine this time amassed an staggering 460-4 batting first away at Thongsbridge as openers Gharib Nawaz (154) and Yorkshire’s Alex Lees (178) had a field day on a sweltering afternoon down at Miry Lane. They put on 260 for the first wicket with both opening batsmen taking 126 balls to rack up their huge personal tallies. Nawaz flayed 22 fours and 5 sixes while Lees pummelled 17 fours and 7 maximums in a match to forget for the hosts. Bowlers were switched regularly as stand-in captain James Cassidy was simply unable to cope with such merciless batting. Even Chris Holliday (66no) had time to smack a quickfire 26-ball knock (8 fours, 4 sixes) before tea. It didn’t help the Thongsbridge cause missing a prolific batsman in Ben Raven-Hill but they were never likely to overhaul such a daunting total and they fell well short of the required target with Australian import Haydn Slodecki (28) top scoring as Thongsbridge made 162ao in reply.
Waqas Maqsood put in a scintillating all-round performance as Delph & Dobcross narrowly skirted past Shepley in a thoroughly absorbing tussle in which the pendulum swung in both teams favour numerous times. Delph asked Shepley to bat first at Marsh Lane with both teams reeling following defeats the previous day. It at first looked a debatable decision as Shepley quickly got into their stride with opener Dan Wood (44) enjoying some loose bowling. But once Delph shuffled their pack they began to take control as Maqsood (5-39) and Umer Yaqoob (5-50) made good in-roads. Several Shepley batsmen enjoyed starts but got out at crucial times; captain Greg Wood (37) copped for a superb piece of bowling by Maqsood while Shahban Raheem (28) was undone by the same bowler as Shepley tabled 199ao. Delph in reply were seemingly cruising following half-centuries from Mosun Hussain (56) and Chris Tipper (51). However once Nadim Hussain accounted for both batsmen in quick succession things quickly began to unravel for the visitors. Maqsood (49no), after a shaky start then began to grow in confidence and he shepherded the tail well, taking strike when needed and inflicting some lusty blows on a tiring Shepley bowling attack. With overs in hand, Maqsood picked his opportunities well whilst Shepley will be left to reflect on dropped catches which could, and should have won the match for them.
A six-wicket booty for Honley’s Timmy Taylor (6-26) saw them enjoy an easy win at home to struggling Shelley. The visitors are the only team yet to win in the Premiership and their wait goes on for at least another week as they were harassed constantly by all-rounder Taylor who bowled his whole 15 over allocation straight through. Shelley slumped to 102ao and it would have been even less had the evergreen Ranjith Bandula-Don (30) not hung around. Honley wasted precious little time in reply as they scooted to 105-2 in only 16 overs with opener Simon Kelly finishing with an unbeaten 62 whilst Taylor himself hit 26. Shelley’s cause not helped by missing key bowler Martin Sykes.
Broad Oak also enjoyed a thoroughly decent day at the office as they ruthlessly disposed of improving Mirfield Parish Cavaliers. Jack Hargreaves’ talented side are packed with home-grown products with as many as nine former juniors in their starting eleven. They helped themselves to an imposing 278-4 with Dominic Finn’s 143no at the heart of their innings. His run-a-ball contribution contained 20 fours and just one six and he was joined by skipper Hargreaves (56) to torment the Parish bowlers. It was a bad day all round for Parish as opening bowlers Adam France (6-45) and Kiwi Kyran Dill (4-40) ran through the Cavaliers batting, bowling them out for 87 in just 22 overs.
Javaid Ahmed enjoyed his second 5+ wicket tally to help Kirkburton see off Scholes at Chapelgate. The home side have had an awkward start to their 2018 campaign and must have seen a home match against inconsistent Kirkburton as a good chance to get back on track. However Ahmed bowled a brilliant spell of seam bowling as he ran through Scholes’ tail to reduce them to 160ao. A Luke Williamson 70 was the cornerstone of a Kirkburton win with former player Toby Booth (38no) guiding his current side to a useful victory.
Cawthorne couldn’t follow up their scintillating victory over Delph the previous day as they fell to defeat away at Armitage Bridge. They were undone by Aiden Jump (5-43), stepping up from the second team but slotting in nicely as Cawthorne let positive start go to waste sliding from 95-6 to 136ao. Armitage Bridge got back to winning ways following their narrow defeat to Golcar on the Saturday by reaching 138-3; Tony Treadaway (44) then carried his bat to ensure Cawthorne couldn’t repeat any heroics as hosts Bridge secured a good victory.
Moorlands were another team to swifty get back to winning ways as they turned over Golcar by 81 runs at the Memorial Ground. Moorlands’ opener Jared Maxwell (65) and no. 3 batter Nathan Rabnott (54) made a good start to build a competitive first innings score, despite a six-wicket statement from Golcar overseas Sam Mills (6-43) as the hosts made 248-9 from 50 overs. It was left for the opening bowlers for Moorlands; Nicky Smith (3-31) and Andrew Walker (3-33) to put Golcar on the back foot by effectively removing the upper order. Despite a belligerent half-century from Craig Ruscoe (52) Moorlands ran out comfortable winners to go fourth in the table.
Full scores:
Cawthorne 136 (L Skelly 39; F Hussain 4-33, D Moorhouse 5-43)
*Armitage Bridge 138-3 (M West 30, T Treadaway 44no, J Curtling 32).
*Broad Oak 278-4 (D Finn 143, C Woodruff 45, J Hargreaves 56)
Mirfield PC 87 (J Hardcastle 26; A France 6-45, K Dill 4-40).
Shelley 102 (R Bandula-Don 30; B Randell 3-23, T Taylor 6-26)
*Honley 105-2 (S Kelly 62no, T Taylor 26).
*Moorlands 248-9 (J Maxwell 65, N Rabnott 54, S Sajiid 36; S Mills 6-43)
Golcar 167 (C Ruscoe 52 ; N Smith 3-31, A Walker 3-33)
*Scholes 160 (A Clegg 31, B Birkhead 41, G Pearson 36; J Ahmed 5-26, W Reeve 3-51)
Kirkburton 163-6 (L Williamson 70, T Booth 38no).
*Shepley 199 (D Wood 44, G Wood 37, S Raheem 28; W Maqsood 5-29, U Yaqoob 5-50)
Delph & Dobcross 200-9 (M Hussain 56, C Tipper 51, W Maqsood 49no; N Hussain 4-57, N Jamal 4-41).
Hoylandswaine 460-4 (G Nawaz 154, A Lees 178, C Holliday 66no, U Arshad 28no)
*Thongsbridge 162 (H Slodecki 28, B Howett 26; G Randhawa 3-39).