Ben Raven-Hill rained down fire and brimstone as Thongsbridge made a damaging impact on Barkisland’s impressive home record. The frontline batsman with a reputation for cashing in heavily recorded the season’s best total by a Premiership batsman to ruthlessly flay the Barkisland bowling attack. He eclipsed another hefty total of his own, set on the opening day of the season as his 170 scored from 127 balls provided the bedrock of Thongsbridge’s 338-6 total. Harry Franklin also weighed in with a precise 100 taken from 96 deliveries with an eye-watering total of 41 boundaries registered between them. Luke Bridges added to his 4-87 in the first innings with his fourth half-century before Ben Balmforth took 3-55 for Thongsbridge to emphatically put an end to a worrying run of six defeats on the spin.
Charlie Roebuck set up a tense finale at the Memorial Ground as Broad Oak came within just one run of throwing a spanner in Moorlands title aspirations. The attacking batsman slammed 132 from 125 balls in reply to Moorlands’ 251-8 as the hosts struggled to contain him. With Roebuck eventually trapped LBW by James Stansfield (2-37), his teammates carried it to a gripping final over needing four to win. Moorlands skipper Eddie Walmsley (3-43) kept his cool by taking two wickets, denying Oak, to line up a must-win showdown with Hoylandswaine in the next match.
Delph & Dobcross’ threadbare side fell to defeat against Champions Hoylandswaine but they could take heart from a performance that gave their illustrious opponents food for thought. Rizwan Ali, Xander Selby and Nathan Jones all bagged a trio of wickets each as they dismissed Swaine for 244; a score boosted by Max Morley’s late 34 after Chris Holliday had made a fluent half-century. The hosts warmed up for their Sykes Cup final by sweeping aside a vulnerable Delph batting lineup for whom Will Mott (38) top scored. Morley collected five of Delph’s wickets as the left-hander completed a polished performance to bowl the visitors out for 117.
Steve Whitwam was at his prolific best to consign Armitage Bridge to a crushing defeat at Swallow Lane. The Golcar all-rounder helped himself to four wickets as the visitors collapsed from 49-0 to 75ao and he capped off another fine display with 42no to fire his team to an 11th win of the season.
Barring an extreme combination of events, Shepley secured Premiership cricket for next season by defeating rudderless Mirfield Parish Cavaliers. Numan Akbar (5-43) and Nasir Jamal (3-31) dismantled the visitors who set 161ao but Shepley waltzed to victory by replying with 166-1 thanks to half-centuries by Tom Chadwick (62no) and Luke Patel (84no).
Timmy Taylor (40) helped heal a poor start to Honley’s match at home to Kirkburton by rebuilding his side’s innings to post 171ao. John Keeling took 4-29 for ‘Burton and then scored 30 in the reply, however Sam Denton (3-29) and Harry Moore (3-25) hit back to send the visitors spinning to their eighth defeat of the season.
Nathan Shaw’s 50no gave Slaithwaite’s outside chances of survival no harm as they saw off out-of-sorts Scholes. Tom Brook took 5-37 and Yaasar Imtiaz (4-56) but Slaithwaite still went on to make 164ao. Brook went on to score 65 but Scholes were undone by good work by Brad Sylvester and Sohail Butt who both took 3-19 as the visitors crashed to 119ao. The win leaves Slaithwaite 11 points from safety with five matches to play.
