The 1st XI game at Shires Lane was called off about 1pm – just after visitors Oakworth had arrived – following a heavy shower which left the square unplayable.
Driving to Thornton, to umpire the 2nd XI game, it was raining from Keighley to Broughton. I felt that this is going to be a waste of an afternoon then the rain stopped. I arrived at the ground and walked across to the pavilion and was surprised at the condition of the ground, the square and the wicket – all perfectly playable. There was a slight delay to the start whilst the scorer for the 1st XI made her way to the ground which was very useful seeing as how Thornton didn’t have a scorer!
The homeside won the toss and decided to bat. They lost two quick wickets reaching 8. They recovered to 92-3 when we started to make further inroads into the batting. They were reduced to 127-8 before a bit of tail wagging got them to 142-9. Pride of place in the bowling went to Simon Holt, who has not played for over two years due to a bad shoulder injury, bowled his allocation of 10 overs and finished with 2-36. Dom Kay finished with same figures; Gareth Wooler only took 1 wicket for 36 runs. Our two juniors that were playing also put in very tidy spells – Leighton Meeking finished with 2-12 off 4 overs and Hammed Hussain 1-18 off 6 overs.
Jonathan Coward, who had chased back from London, to help the cause, was subdued for 17 balls only managing 7 runs. In the next 25 balls he hammered 5 sixes and 2 fours which made his score rocket to 58 where he was bowled. At the end last weeks hero Gareth Wooler, was also subdued. He spent 55 balls accumulating 6 runs! He finished with 43 off 87 balls. Rob Bateman – playing his first game for three years – was next to go for 6. This takes his tally to 12236 runs for the Club. Two more wickets fell for 5 runs before Dom Kay, who finished on 28no, scored the winning run with 10 overs to spare. We are in second spot 8 points behind the leaders. It will be 11 after this week because we don’t have a game.
The Cowling Cup semi finals and final were called off on Saturday night because Airedale’s ground was not fit. A new date has yet to be arranged. This Saturday – the 28th – sees the 1st XI visit bottom of the table Foulridge.
Trevor Coe
