Mirfield Parish Cavaliers were floored by a Matt Henshaw bowling display as Almondbury Wesleyans got their season up and running. Pragam Sharma hit a hundred for Hoylandswaine as they timed their chase at Scholes to minute perfection and table-topping Barkisland’s flawless start to the season was sullied at Shepley.
Almondbury Wesleyans opened their account for the season with a wholesome win over Mirfield Parish Cavaliers. Matt Henshaw’s four wicket haul disrupted Parish’s gameplan as they succumbed to the home side’s pressure before crumbling to 114ao. Stephen Lane supported Henshaw’s efforts with 3-39. Matthew West (34) and Will Binns (26) shared an opening stand of 53 but Wes made heavy weather of the reply than it perhaps should have been before finishing on 115-6.
Leaders Barkisland blotted their new season copy book after they capitulated at Shepley. Openers Dan Wood (48) and George Booth (48) got off to a decent start before former Shepley pace bowler Numan Akbar hauled the home side back with 3-48 as they put up 179-9 batting first. Barkisland stumbled to 12-4 as opening siblings Craig Glover (3-5) and Danny Glover (3-26) harried the visitors. Harry Finch scored 43 but was unable to prevent an inevitable defeat as they were eventually dismissed for 131.
At Chapelgate, Openers Nico Georgiou-Nicola (69) and Mitchell Slattery (60) got Scholes off to a flyer at home to Hoylandswaine. Yorkshire’s James Wharton then made 28 and they were nicely poised at 197-4 but wastefully they couldn’t make their dominance count with Max Morley (5-74) pegging them back to 247-8. Hoylandswaine’s Pragam Sharma slammed 100 from 111 balls but the match was left in the balance after he was uprooted with Swaine slipping precariously from 192-5 to 199-8. Umer Yaqoob (34) - batting at ten - showed composure with Adam Sylvester (19no) to deny Scholes as Hoylandswaine reached 248-8 on the final ball. Wasim Javed (4-63) was unable to find a crucial breakthrough in a tense final over.
Honley shrugged off a bad start at home to Thongsbridge who had them at 22-4, only for Danny Howard’s side to set 136ao thanks to an Eddie Wilson (53) half century. Thongsbridge veteran Zafar Iqbal (3-27) and new man Jiv Pillay (3-22) imposed themselves on Honley, but were made to pay for a disastrous start to their reply. 0-2 was recovered to 48-2 thanks partly to Pillay’s 30 but opening Honley bowlers Joel Size (4-54) and Charlie Taylor (3-18) scythed through their opponents' batting. Simon Kelly (3-33) then provided the killer blow against his former club as they were dismissed for 106.
Fletcher Coutts (31no) was helpless to prevent his Broad Oak side sliding to defeat after they were bowled out for 91 at Kirkburton. The visitors collapsed from a healthy 40-1 to a worrying 51-6 with bowlers Aaron Moore (3-35) and Tom Burkinshaw (3-15) in the thick of the action. Kirkburton openers Andrew Smith (38) and Jack Kelly (29no) made sure of a comfortable win as the home side rounded on 92-2.
Marcus Wamsley. Picture courtesy of Ray Spencer / Bradford Cricket League
It took just 18 overs for Moorlands to bowl Skelmanthorpe out for 54 in an event-filled match at Lidgett Lane. Skelmanthorpe alarmingly subsided to 27-7 at one stage on an afternoon which didn’t get much better for Allan Greenwood’s men. Bowlers Jon Rudge (4-32) and Marcus Walmsley (6-20) caused carnage with the ball, however Moorlands reply wasn’t quite a straightforward walk. Prayesh Kumar Singh (4-32) claimed late wickets for Skelmanthorpe to almost grab a point but Moorlands secured a comfortable victory on 55-5.
