Champions York will not be complacent

With Saturday’s entire league programme washed out, York remain in pole position, but four clubs are in hot pursuit. Harrogate, Cleethorpes and Yorkshire Academy are all just three points behind the champions, with Driffield Town a further two points back.

York finished last season 11 points ahead of runners-up Yorkshire Academy, who went on to defeat them on the opening day of the current campaign. Since then, the men from Clifton Park have won all their five completed league games and made progress in the ECB Club Championship and the Yorkshire Champions Trophy.

They climbed to the top for the first time this season with victory over Harrogate by 57 runs on May 31 but vice-captain and secretary Nick Kay warned: “If we are to win the league again we know the Academy will be one of the teams there or thereabouts. The league looks to be a very tight contest. No-one is going to run away with it.”

Kay has already contributed two half-centuries in the league, along with Simon Lambert and Yorkshire prospect Jack Leaning, while spinner Tom Pringle achieved five-wicket hauls against Rotherham and Harrogate.

Harrogate need to recapture their form after successive home defeats to Castleford and York which cost them the leadership. Third-placed Cleethorpes have yet to lose in the league, but they have been badly affected by the weather with six matches rained off.

The Academy had no scheduled game on May 31 and fixtures against Driffield, Barnsley, Castleford and Rotherham have been rained off.