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It was a poor weekend for the club as the senior sides lost all three games they were involved in.
The 1st XI entertained Knaresborough Forest at Shire Lane. On winning the toss skipper Morgan Davies asked the visitors to go first and it looked to be the right decision when they were 102 for 8 at the end of the 33rd over. However, a certain Mr Morgan decided enough was enough and smashed 62 not out which included 5 fours and 4 sixes. The last two wickets put on 69 runs to take the total to 171. Jack Kitching took 3 for 43, Sam Arkwright 3 for 47 and Haroon Ali 3 for 49. Our reply got off to the worst possible start as we lost both openers without a run on the board. It carried on in that vein as we struggled to get going. Sam top scored with 32, Andrew Foulds scored 24 and Morgan 20. The innings, which closed on 156, benefited from 44 wides! So Forest jump over us and we drop to 11th in the table.
The 2nd XI travelled to Walton Park, near Wetherby, and like the first team struggled to score after losing Caspar Bean second ball. Returning to fold, 18-year-old Hammaad Hussain went for 5. Opener Thomas Mountain dropped anchor. He was fifth out for 23 of a gritty 99 balls. Gareth Wooler made 19 and Josh Baines 13 as we staggered to 100 for 9 at the end of our 40 overs. Sitting on top of the Division they thought it was going to be a cake walk. Our tenacity came to the fore and with Caspar in great form with the ball reduced them to nervy wrecks. He finished with 6-27 off 10 overs. Unfortunately, we ran into experienced campaigners batting at nine and ten, and they got them home by two wickets in the 32nd over. Hammaad finished with 2 for 30. We sit in sixth place int Division 31 points behind the leaders.
On Sunday we dubious pleasure in entertaining Division One leaders, Arthington in the second round of the Atkinson-Swire cup. We started well and had three of their batters back in the shed for 33. The next wicket fell at 212, where H Satuawan for 123 which included 14 fours and 7 sixes and took 78 balls. It didn’t help that we dropped him four times! His partner, U Farooq went for 56, 16 runs later. Despite having only two main bowlers we battled away as they closed on 278 for 8 in the 38th over (they only had nine men). Our reply got off to a bad start as we lost Nathan Barrett run out for 0 in the first over. Jack Kitching, 2, and Ben Keane, 6, followed quickly to leave us 19 for 3. A mini revival by Josh Robinson, 38, and Sam Arkwright, 17, helped us to 76 for 5. From there it was all downhill, and we had reached 110 when our last wicket fell. For them R Khode took 6 for 31 off just six overs. This week the 1st XI are away to Darley, looking to bounce back from a bad weekend. The 2nd XI are at home to Ripley 2nds
Trevor Coe – ECC Chairman
