Triangle, Warley and Booth make it two wins out of two in Halifax Cricket League

In the Premier Division, Triangle took the accolade of the day as it defeated champions Illingworth St Mary’s at Grassy Bottom by 41 runs.

The home team, unlike many others on the day, elected to bat first and whilst no batsman went on to a big score the cumulative contributions from Kurtis Whippey (53), Tom Watson (49), Josh Graham (44) and Christian Silkstone (43) proved decisive in a total of 267-8.

Graham (4-53) had an excellent afternoon as he took some important St Mary’s wickets at regular intervals, the tenth wicket falling with one ball remaining – 226 all out.

Booth added a second win in the 11-match season, easily accounting at home for Sowerby Bridge by seven wickets. All the main action surrounded Booth’s opener Hasnain Wajid (96) who was bowled with the scores level, aiming for an 85-ball century.

The Bridge had earlier taken its only consolation by denying its hosts the maximum points haul at 165-9.

The match at Shelf Northowram HT produced the most runs of the day with 561, keeping the scorers busy for 78.4 overs and it included the highest individual score from SBCI’s Alex Scholefield (131).

The visitors’ innings was dominated by a 149-run partnership from Schofield and Adam Fawcett (60) as a challenging 292-6 was posted.

The home team took up the mantle with Harry Talbot (95) and the ex-Yorkshire player, Scott Richardson (49), putting on 135 runs for the first wicket.

However when Talbot was run out, five short of his century with the score on 158-2, the chase ended some 23 runs short at 269 all out – second change bowler Thomas Wood (5-65) providing the match-winning return.

Copley’s troubles continued as it could only manage 148-9 at Thornton after having been sent in to bat. A top score from Prahalad Nadella (34) rather emphasises its problem and whilst an all out total was avoided the scoring rate was well below four runs per over.

The figures of Mark Clayton (4-27), the fifth bowler used by Thornton, rather proved the point. As did Thornton’s winning total of 150-6 in 32.4 overs – Nikki Hutchinson 52 not out.

The 12 overs of Oliver Thorpe (4-33) giving at least some Copley encouragement. Mytholmroyd, mid/lower-table participants for a number of years, proved on its visit to Blackley that the home team will need some further recruitment next season as it defeated the promoted outfit by 52 runs.

Batting first Royd totalled 205 all out in 39.3 overs, the main contributors to the score being Taufeeq Ahmed (61 not out) and Jack Earle (60).

The Blackley innings in reply only lasted 34.2 overs as it fell for 153 all out, most of its runs coming from Sam Mindham (43) and Wayne Swift (39), as seven of their colleague failed to reach double figures.

Paradise Lane was certainly not that for batsmen as 19 wickets fell for 225 runs.

When Warley, batting first, struggled to 124-8 visiting Bradshaw must have given itself a chance of an upset.

The Warley openers had taken the score to 55-0 but more than 20 overs had been used and after that wickets feel regularly and an attempted late surge never got into gear. Bradshaw however fared even worse and needed tail-enders Aaron Buckley and Matthew Crowther to raise the score from 75-9 to 101 all out, as Warley scraped home by 23 runs – Milton Greenwood (4-27) the pick of the bowlers.

The tightest contest of the day came in the First Division where visitors Great Horton PC beat Clayton by one run. Horton batted first and led by skipper Adam Beesley (54) were 172 all out with one ball remaining, third change bowler William Edden (5-45) causing most damage.

Clayton’s innings followed much the same pattern with Saad Shafique (48) leading the response but similarly wickets fell at intervals to reach 163-9 with ten runs required for a win.

Tight bowling restricted the last pair however to eight runs and Clayton closed on 171-9 to give Horton the win.

There was also a tight finish at Upper Hopton with the home team sneaking a one-wicket win in a low scoring affair against Luddendenfoot.

The latter batted first and its scorecard was a real oddity with five batsmen scoring 108 runs and the other six a total of just one run, plus five extras in an all out 114. Hopton also lost wickets regularly and at 110-9 the result was in the balance.

However its no 6 batsman, Matt Broadbent (32 not out), battled his way through 39 balls to see his team home in the 33rd over.

Oxenhope is in all sorts of trouble and even managed a worst score than last week’s 95 all out.

The match at The Trinity Oval saw just 30.4 overs required as Low Moor HT skittled out its visitors for a meagre 50 all out, only one player managing to reach double figures as Mark Stokes (5-31) helped himself to a five-wicket haul.

The home team then took just 11 overs to score 51-2, Paul Chapman on the receiving end of some ribald comments from his teammates with a golden duck – the first in the nets this week?

At Second Division Cullingworth its groundsman, David Robinson, must have worked miracles to produce a track that allowed his team to record the highest score of the day against Leymoor, which was especially to the liking of one player.

Entering the fray at 122-5 Bilal Khalid (104 not out) simply tore the Golcar team’s bowling apart taking just 48 balls to reach his century in an unbeaten sixth-wicket stand of 168 runs with skipper Chris Welch (68 not out), to post a tough target at 290-5.

Tough it proved as Leymoor, perhaps dizzy fron the onslaught, managed only 141 all out, although the home team only picked up the final bowling point with three balls left – captain Pierce Walker (45 not out) disappointed to be left stranded.

On its travels Bradley & Colnebridge just failed to match the Queensbury score of 152-5 as four home batsmen hit 20 runs or more.

Despite the top score in the match coming from B&C’s Irfan Rashid (43) he was last out with his team some 12 runs shirt of the target at 141 all out.

The final two matches in the division were low scoring to say the least with a combined total of only 333 runs for 32 wickets.

Augustinians must have given itself half a chance as it bowled out its visitors, Southowram, for 119. Had it managed to obtain the early wicket of Dean Crossley (80) the task would have been much easier - the No 3 batsmen watched horror struck as his ten other teammates scored just 27 runs between them!

As it turned out his 80 would have won the match on its own as Augustinians collapsed to 79 all out – Eion Doran’s 4-25 coincidentally coming in 25 balls.

Stones was also in all sorts of trouble as it ventured into Huddersfield and Outlane in particular. Its innings started badly, as opener Thomas Kenworthy was run out without scoring, and it did not get much better.

A total of seven batsmen failed to trouble the scorers with only two efforts of 19 runs giving Outlane any resistance – five bowlers sharing the other nine wickets.

The home team took just over 13 overs to register an eight-wicket win at 68-2.

Results: Premier Division: Mytholmroyd 205, *Blackley 153. Sowerby Bridge 165-9, *Booth 171-3. SBCI 292-6, *Shelf Northowram HT 269. Copley 148-9, *Thornton 150-6. *Triangle 267-8, Illingworth St Mary’s 226. *Warley 124-9, Bradshaw 101.

First Division: Great Horton PC 172, *Clayton 171-9. Oxenhope 50, Low Moor HT 51-2. Luddendenfoot 114, *Upper Hopton 115-9.

Second Division: Southowram 119, *Augustinians 79. *Cullingworth 290-5, Leymoor 141. Stones 67, *Outlane 68-2. *Queensbury 152-5, Bradley & Colnebridge 141.