Writer: Tim Hirst
On Wednesday, Thongsbridge hosted the annual MCC match against the U21 Huddersfield side.
When MCC elected to bat in beautiful conditions, all present expected a sizeable total. However, in temperatures exceeding 28 degrees Celsius, Huddersfield bowled superbly, restricting MCC to a paltry 91 all out.
Aaron Moore (Kirkburon) bowled tightly from the Miry Lane end, often rapping the batsmen's knuckles. In the third over, he found the edge of Toby Booth's bat, which was caught by Ben Harris - one of four dismissals for the Honley keeper. His new ball partner, Jay Cyrus (Golcar) also had a good opening spell and was rewarded with the wicket of Taylor-Gell, who holed out to the Huddersfield skipper Kai Greig.
Moore continued to bowl well and collected the wickets of Leyshon and Wolfenden. Both were caught behind. Wolfenden was looking dangerous and top-scored for MCC with 37, including seven boundaries. This left MCC 55-4 in the 15th over.
Wightman and Cartwright stemmed the flow of wickets. Cyrus finished his five over spell and was replaced at the Car Park end with Nathan Kenworthy (Meltham???) who also bowled a five over spell. In the 21st over, Huddersfield introduced spin with Delph's Xander Selby bowling from the Miry Lane end and Musa Ahmed (Armitage Bridge???) bowling from the Car Park end.
Musa had immediate success. Wightman holed out to Shelley's George Barden and two balls later Sleightholme also holed out to Barden. Huddersfield legend John Booth joined Cartwright, but Cartwright soon departed also caught by Barden off Musa. MCC 89-7 at lunch. After some excellent Thongsbridge catering, Musa claimed the final three wickets in the second over after lunch, bowling John Booth and Harvey Booth and having last man Lees stumped.
Wolfenden's 37 was the backbone of the MCC innings. Only two other batsmen reached double figures. Moore bowled a spell of 10 overs 3-42 in the hot conditions. However, Musa was the star of the Huddersfield bowling with a scarcely believable 6-7 in only 23 balls.
Huddersfield had few scares in knocking off the total. Ben Carrington (Kirkburton) anchored the innings, carrying his bat for 39 from 47 balls. He was supported with 20 from Barden and 24 from Golcar's James North. The innings finished in the 19th over, with an increasingly confident Carrington launching two boundaries off Lees. Huddersfield 95-4.
After some poor weather in previous meetings, Huddersfield were delighted with their victory in the sunshine.
View the scorecard here: MCC v HCL U21
