Headingley thriller as Holmfirth crowned champions

The Kirklees school defeated Easingwold, near York, for the second final in succession, this time by four wickets.

In a testament to both schools, they have battled their way through 120 state schools to reach the final in consecutive years and each with a near-complete turnover of players.

It is the mission of the Yorkshire Post Schools Challenge to help nurture grass roots cricket and in the competition’s 21st year, the four schools on show yesterday are evidence that this continues to happen.

Only Thomas Mighall has two winners’ medals after playing both years for a Holmfirth team that thrives on a good work ethic and team unity.

Easingwold similarly have some talented players and good depth in their cricket programme, but the one outstanding star is Matthew Fisher, who is a rangy all-rounder for Yorkshire members to keep an eye on.

At the tender age of 13 Fisher has already been selected to represent Yorkshire Academy in the ECB Yorkshire League – though rain forced the cancellation of the game for which he was picked.

And just recently he was named player of the tournament as Yorkshire went unbeaten to win the Under-14s Festival of Cricket at Taunton.

Having destroyed St Wilfrid’s bowling attack and batting line-up in the semi-final, Easingwold’s star initially faced resistance as Sam Angell, Mighall and Steven Asquith produced mean opening spells in the first blows of the final.

A quarter of the way through their innings on the pristine surface at Headingley, Easingwold were just 13-0 with Fisher stuck on four having faced 24 balls.

Fisher finally burst into life when he hit a six off spinner Ben Earnshaw before Ed Clowes got the key wicket for Holmfirth as rising star Fisher fell to a catch by Mighall. Fisher’s 29 helped Easingwold to 45-1.

Earnshaw then trapped Matthew Poulter lbw for 12, all of which came from boundaries.

It was 58-3 in the 15th over when opener Max Cosgrove’s slow progress was checked on six by the combination of Alex Robinson and Clowes.

Clowes then ran out Christopher Scurr and Earnshaw caught Daniel Cass at wide mid-off off the bowling of Asquith.

The run-out of Matthew Radford brought up the close of the Easingwold innings at 77-6.

The pick of the Holmfirth bowling were Asquith and Mighall. Despite not taking a wicket, Mighall allowed only five runs in four overs, three of which he bowled to Fisher.

Batting wise the holders were in all sorts of trouble when they found themselves 0-2 in the second over.

Fisher trapped Harry Franklin lbw in an opening maiden and then Jack Cooper was bowled by Cass for a duck.

Things weren’t looking much brighter at 8-3 as Cass struck again for Easingwold, this time removing Thomas Webster with the aid of Gavin Macek’s catch.

But Earnshaw and Mighall transformed the contest with a fourth-wicket partnership of 55 that accelerated the run rate and put Holmfirth within touching distance of the target.

It was Fisher who broke them up, bowling Mighall for 29 in the 15th over. Then with his next ball he removed Clowes for a golden duck.

And although he was not the bowler at the start of the 16th over, he was the young man who charged in to run out Asquith despite the Holmfirth batsman not facing a ball.

From 63-3, Holmfirth had subsided to 63-6, though time was on their side as they chased 10 runs to win from 25 balls.

So they were relieved 11 balls later when Earnshaw (31no) cut the ball through the boundary for the victory that saw them retain their title.

Holmfirth coach Ryan Blezard said: “It’s a fantastic achievement for the school. We’d never won it before – now we’ve won two in a row. The key was good bowling, good fielding and some strong middle-order batting.”

Easingwold coach Julian Trodden said: “It’s a big achievement just getting here and there should no need for the lads to be disappointed, they can all be proud of themselves. But we were probably just a few runs light in the final and Holmfirth were deserved winners.”

On Fisher, Trodden said: “We’ve got very high hopes for him.

“Obviously you don’t want to heap too much on his shoulders at this stage but he’s certainly a very good cricketer for his age.”

Thanks go to the umpires: Ray Osbourne, Harold Todd, Peter Langley and Gary Hebden.