St Mary’s and Thornton suffer shock early Briggs Priestley Parish Cup exits
There were major shocks in the Briggs Priestley Parish Cup where both the holders, Illingworth St Mary's, and the 2023 & 2024 winners, Thornton, were dumped out of the competition on a day of surprise results.
In the clash of the round at The Ainleys the hosts, Illingworth St Mary's, got off to a dreadful start against Booth.
Its first batters were dismissed without scoring, the trio only lasting for a cumulative fourteen balls.
The calamitous batting did not stop there as the Hassans, Shazad (34) and Shoaib (18), were the only batters to reach double figures in a 75 all out total.
Booth employed six bowlers, all of whom took at least one wicket.
The visitors cruised into the third round with 76-2 in the 13th over.
The shock came not so much with the result but with the manner in which the Cup holders capitulated.
There was a further shock at SBCI where Thornton, inserted, lost wickets at an alarming rate with six of its top seven batters failing to reach double-figures.
The exception was Josh Hutchinson who scored 84 runs in a very conservative, for him, 91 balls but the innings closed on 136 all out, as Alexander Scholefield's nine overs brought him 5-30.
In reply it was skipper Scholefield (67) that held the SBCI innings together but, when he caught out with the score at 112-7, the SBCI supporters were left biting plenty nails.
However Simon Wood stepped up and his 30 not out sealed a tremendous win for the Sowerby team at 139-8.
The largest scores of the day came at Mount where the hosts initially pulverised the bowling of visiting Blackley.
Mahmadbhai Makda (83), Ashrafali Abed (76), Zazir Patel (65) and Mahmad Kayat (60) all had fine knocks in a score of 332-5.
In reply Blackley opener Lewis Holt (67) set up the challenge and it came within a whisker of a brilliant win, mainly due to Sam Roberts.
Not only did he hit his maiden hundred, with a tremendous 158 not out in 108 balls, but took his team to within one run of the Mount total, taking 25 off the last over as the innings closed on 331-8.
In the local derby, at Clayton, visiting Oxenhope made an excellent start as Alex Baker (45) and Lewis Hopkinson (73) joined in a second-wicket partnership of 111 runs.
Callum Holmes added 39 not out but other wickets went cheaply, as the innings closed on 203 all out.
The hosts never looked likely to reach the target and were 85 all out in the 21st over.
Premier Division Bradshaw, struggling in the League, opted to bat first on its short trip to second tier Cullingworth and posted 228-9 in its 45 overs.
Piers Fisher (64) and skipper Matthew Crowther (54) led the scoring.
The second tightest finish of the day followed as the home team was very unlucky to lose by just 4 runs. Junaid Mehmood (59) top scored, aided by Bilal Khalid (35) but the drama came following the loss of its ninth wicket at 192-9.
Graham Rankin (26) and Dave Robinson (5 not out) gradually pushed the score along until Rankin was caught - 224 all out. Imran Abdulrahimzai took 4-28.
At Queensbury the hosts reached 183 all out against Premier opponents in Triangle, after being reduced to sad-looking scores of 53-6 and 97-8.
The recovery was due thanks to a fine knock from Gareth Walker (81).
Triangle responded with a well-timed effort, its innings anchored by Tom Fryer's 57 not out.
James Callighan added 39 runs and, with two other batters scoring in the twenties, a winning 184-5 came in the 38th over.
Copley, electing to bat first against Premier rivals Upper Hopton in the sunshine under The Arches, amassed 253-6 with Will Rushton (106) equalling his career best highest score.
In partnership with Martin Rowles (83) the pair put on 151 for the fourth wicket to set a substantial target.
Hopton made a valiant effort in the chase but eventually fell 32 short of a win.
Callum Fern (46) set the base and, having progressed to 181-4, the result was in the balance.
However when Daniel Syme (55) was dismissed at 210-7 the innings petered out to 222 all out.
Most of the damage was done by two Copley bowlers, Oliver Thorpe (5-31) and Inshal Dar (4-33).
Outlane travelled to Oakworth, one divison above it, and were asked to field first.
The home team posted 237-9 with the in-form Jake Keslinke (128) hitting a career best as he scored well over half his team's total, an innings that included 16x4s & 5x6s, Asfaq Patel taking 4-50.
Although Lee Mellor hit 55 runs no other Outlane batter reached 30 runs and the innings tailed off at 172 all out.