Yorkshire Leagues - Hanging Heaton’s Cup woe as Otley mop up Beckwithshaw

They chose to field in their second-round Heavy Woollen Cup tie at home to Castleford and saw the visitors rack up 317-6 from their 50 overs.

Although Cas lost Christopher Briggs early, wicket-keeper Liam Hyde (89) and Brayden Clark (82) added 151 for the second wicket.

Hyde’s runs came off 93 deliveries and included 10 fours and two sixes, while Clark was in for 84 balls and hit 12 fours and two sixes.

Other contributions came from Umair Khan (26), captain David Wainwright (49) and Eddie Morrison (23no), and only Callum Bethel (2-46 off 10 overs) returned decent figures.

Rain meant a revised target of 208 from 26 overs for the home team, and Nick Connolly (36) and Joe Fraser (34) put on 73 for the second wicket but even 44 in 24 balls by David Stiff (three fours, four sixes) could not save them and they finished 18 runs short on 190-9.

Gomersal bettered that Castleford score, making 362 at Sandal, buoyed by an opening stand of 127 between Luke Fletcher (68) and Graham Hilton, who went on to score 131 off just 97 balls, a knock that contained 15 fours and eight sixes.

Sandal were then dismissed for 76, giving Gomersal a 286-run victory.

But even Hilton’s individual effort was topped as Harpreet Singh Bhatia scored 136 not out off 137 balls as he dominated Barnsley Woolley Miners’ 254-6 in their 87-run triumph over Treeton.

There was controversy in the Huddersfield League’s Sykes Cup first round when Lepton Highlanders thought that they had hit a boundary to win the match in the last over at Thongsbridge.

However, the fielder and umpires thought otherwise and only a single resulted, with two run outs in the same over then condemning the Highlanders to a one-run defeat.

On Saturday, Otley were rewarded for their extensive mopping-up operations with a thrilling seven-run victory over Beckwithshaw in one of the few games to start.

Chris Smith the host chairman, said: “When I was a player I was determined to get a game on and now I am chairman I am determined to get a game on.

We started mopping up at ten to nine in the morning, and both Beckwithshaw and the umpires were happy for us to play, and it was remarkably dry considering.”

Beckwithshaw, promoted from Division One of the Aire/Wharfe League last season, won the toss and elected to field in what turned out to be a 23-overs-per-side match.

Former Otley captain James Davies, who opened, and Josh Atkinson put on 92 for the second wicket, with Davies’s 54 coming off 34 balls and including five fours and four sixes.

Atkinson scored 39 off 32 balls that contained four fours and two sixes, and wicketkeeper Alex Atkinson (14), Oliver Halliday (23), Stephen Brown (16) and Joshua Stephenson (18no) took Otley to 197-8.

Of the six bowlers used, only Scott Irvine (2-27 off six overs) was able to keep a lid on the home scoring.

Beckwithshaw captain Ben Holderness made 31 before falling at 42-3, and only 16 were added in the next five overs.

Peter Hotchkiss was biding his time though, and found a willing ally in Alex Morrell.

Together they added 80 runs for the fifth wicket in under nine overs, with Morrell eventually falling for 45, made off 25 balls and including five fours and two sixes. Hotchkiss went for 47 off the first ball of the 22nd over, having hit five fours and a six, and Marcus Lynn included three sixes and three fours, finishing on 39 not out off 20 balls as Beckwithshaw, who needed 20 to win off the last over, ended up just eight runs short of victory in what Smith called “a fantastic game of cricket”.

Defending champions Otley, having lost their first two league matches, have climbed to fourth on 50 points.

Ahead of them are Saltaire (62), Bilton (60) and Beckwithshaw (55), whose seven-point haul was still four better than if their match had been abandoned.

Elsewhere, the Bradford Premier League suffered a washout at both first and second-team level – the worst day for them in terms of rain since July, 2019 – albeit given most of 2020 was wiped out by the pandemic.

The Yorkshire Premier League North, Yorkshire Southern Premier League and Huddersfield League were also crippled by the weather.

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