First teams review May 19 2012

Division One

Champions Woodlands made it three wins from three games as they put an end to Pudsey St Lawrence’s unbeaten start to the season in emphatic style at Albert Terrace.

Woodlands made an impressive 269-7 – the day’s highest total – before dismissing St Lawrence for 120 to secure a 149-run win and a maximum haul of 20 points.

Opener Scott Richardson (95) and Simon Mason (84) shared a decisive second-wicket stand of 163 which seized the initiative for their side.

Mason’s innings containe nine sixes – and five of them came from the first five balls of the 35th over from off spinner Steve Watts.

All of the sixes were straight drives but Mason’s hopes of equalling the record six sixes hit by Pudsey St Lawrence’s Chris Gott off Undercliffe bowler Paul Whittaker in 1991, were shattered when he could only dig out the final ball for a single.

Mason’s assault spolit the analysis of Watts who finished up with 11-1-51-0.

Off spinner Chris Marsden took 4-59 and also followed up with 47, but that wasn’t enough to spare his side from defeat.

Paceman Sarfraz Ahmed struck twice in the pening over of the St Lawrence innings, and they never recovered from the double setback. Left-arm spinner Chris Brice took 5-31 to put the seal on a convincing Woodlands performance.

Manningham Mills are the only other side to have won all their first three matches. They scored a crushing nine-wicket win over Saltaire to move into second place on 47 points – ten adrift of leaders Woodlands.

Iqbal Khan continued his impressive start to the season by taking 4-25 as he and Zeeshan Qasim (3-15) combined forces to dismiss Saltaire for a sorry 83. Adam Patel hit an unbeaten 48 as Mills cruised to their victory target in 20 overs.

Hanging Heaton are now third after a comfortable 79-run win over bottom team Farsley. Skipper John Carruthers (4-34) and paceman David Stiff (3-42) were the men responsible for bowling out Farsley for 128 when they replied to the Hanging Heaton total of 207-8.

The Hanging Heaton score was built around solid contributions from Ismail Dawood (41), Nick Bresnan (36no), Joe Fraser (35) and Imran Dawood (31).

Like Farsley, Pudsey Congs and Cleckheaton have also lost their first three matches. Congs went down by 26 runs to Bradford & Bingley, while Cleckheaton suffered another agonisingly close defeat – this time by one wicket to Undercliffe.

Bradford & Bingley opener Simon Davies marked his return to form with a fine innings of 81 and new boy Alex Atkinson continued his fine form with 44 as Bradford & Bingley posted a score of 227-7 despite the efforts of paceman Muhammed Naved 3-52.

Congs were given a sound start to their reply with openers Gareth Phillips (55) and Nick Lindley (54) sharing a stand of 109 in 32 overs, but once they were parted wickets fell at regular intervals and Congs finished on 201-7,

Undercliffe’s one-wicket win over Cleckheaton owed much to the performances of Shaaiq Choudhrey and Yassir Abbas.

Choudhrey took 3-51 with his left-arm spin as Cleckheaton made 212-8 and followed up by making 54 as his side scraped home with two balls to spare. His good work was capitalised on by Abbas who smashed an unbeaten 58 off 38 balls to see Undercliffe home, hitting four sixes and three fours.

James Lee (4-69) and Ian Wood (3-31) bowled well for Cleckheaton who must be beginning to wonder what they have to do to win a game. Opener Tim Jackson (51), Ian Nicholson (38) and Joseph Robinson (30no) were their top scorer against an attack in which Choudhry and overseas paceman Imran Khan were the most successful bowlers.

Kez Ahmed produced his season best figures of 6-31 as he bowled East Bierley to a 94-run win at Lightcliffe. Ahmed was backed up by left-arm spinner Luke Jarvis (3-20) as Lightcliffe were bowled out for 108 in reply to East Bierley’s 202-8.

Skipper Lee Goddard was again in good form for East Bierley. He made a fine 70 and was well supported by Gavin Hamilton (56) Lightcliffe’s most successful bowlers were Suleman Khan (4-32) and Josh Wheatley (3-61).

Division Two

Leaders Gomersal maintained their unbeaten start to the league season by inflicting a first defeat on promotion hopefuls Morley.

Left-arm spinner Chris Rhodes set up the six-wicket win by taking 6-43 as Morley were restricted to 181-8 after batting first.

Skipper Matthew Baxter (46) and Dave Nebard (30no) were the main contributors for Morley, but their side’s total proved insufficient on the fast-scoring Gomersal ground.

Greg Pickles followed up his century in last Sunday’s Heavy Woollen Cup defeat at Shepley with a vigorous 71, to capitalise on the good work on skipper Adam Greenwood (64) at the top of the order.

Gomersal are now six points ahead of the only other team with three wins from three games, Yeadon. They inflicted more batting misery on lowly Idle as they dismissed them for just 63 before romping to a nine-wicket win. Ben Elvidge (3-7), Damon Gormley (3-13) and Oliver Halliday (3-18) were the men responsible for bowling Idle out.

Keighley’s winning start was brought to an end when they suffered an 88-run defeat at home to Spen Victoria. They were dismissed for just 75 as they replied to a Spen Victoria total of 163 which was built around a patient 82 not out from Tosh Baker. He held his side’s innings together in the face of good bowling from Keighley skipper Max Davidson (4-45) and Joe Stead (3-31).

Keighley’s batsmen never got to grips with the accuracy of Rob Burton (3-12) and Ben Platt (3-15) as they were bowled out in 35.2 overs.

Baildon cashed in on Keighley’s defeat and climbed in to third place after bowling out Bowling Old Lane for just 32 to seal a 143-run win. Opening bowlers Sohail Raz (5-15) and skipper Craig Hitchenor (5-16) shared the wickets.

Baildon had made 175-8 in their innings with Tom Webb making an unbeaten 47 and Raz hitting 35, Leg-spinner Mahboob Hussain (4-23) was the most successful Old lane bowler.

Martin Riley took 5-44 as Hartshead Moor dismissed Windhill for 195 to secure a six-run win – their first league victory of the season.

Riley ensured that despite of the efforts of Umar Abbas (68) and Hassan Mehmood (61) Windhill just fell short of a Hartshead Moor total of 201-6 which was built around a well-made 84 from opener Graham Hilton and 58 from Stephen Blackburn.

Great Horton recorded their second successive win when they beat Brighouse by 77 runs. Raheel Ahmed (57) and Muhammed Bilal (49) steered Great Horton to 182-9 despite the efforts of off spinner Will Smith (4-47). Brighouse meandered to 105-7 in reply with Umar Salim finishing unbeaten on 54.