“It’s a positive step in the right direction” - Stocks hoping Triangle’s title triumph acts as springboard for more success

Triangle won this season’s title after a dramatic final day that saw Thornton suffer a surprise defeat to Sowerby Bridge, allowing Stocks’ side to overhaul them by winning at Booth.

Triangle have only won the championship once in this century, in 2011, amongst its total of a league record total of 17 triumphs overall.

And they were helped by a secret weapon to clinch this season’s crown.

“That morning we had a player that couldn’t play at the last minute so I rang my dad, who retired last year and was going to score for the second team,and said ‘somebody’s dropped out, can you come in and do a job?’ said Stocks.

“He loves cricket so he was very up for it. He was fortunate enough to take a really crucial catch as well.

“We knew we needed to get seven points. I won the toss and I wanted to bat first, we put 240 on the board, which isn’t a bad score.

“We had a bit of a drinks break when I was at the crease and someone came out to me and said ‘do you want to know the Thornton score?’ and I said ‘yeah’.

“He said ‘they’re 17-5’ and I thought we had a bit of a chance then.

“It was a really good performance all-round, but the guys are used to playing under pressure.

“We’ve got a really good, experienced lot that know how to handle that.”

The season was limited to just 10 games of 40 overs cricket due to the coronavirus pandemic, and Stocks admits it has felt like a strange campaign to play in.

“We’ve done really well to get cricket on, there was a lot of scepticism, rightly so, and a lot of risk involved, a lot of challenges,” he said.

“But cricket’s been the real winner this year. The officials, the league, the groundtaff, the volunteers, the clubs, they’ve all done a fantastic job in making it safe and secure.

“It’s been fantastic to win the league. Every club, including ours, has faced challenges in getting a consistent team out because of people having work or other commitments.

“But that’s meant the juniors have been able to get a go.

“We’ve shown consistency in our team selection, we’ve been able to get eight, nine, 10 out every week, whereas at times in the last couple of years we’ve only had a nucleus of about six or seven, so that’s helped us a lot.

“We know we’ll lose a couple of players next year.

“We’ve had a massive boost this year in Christian Silkstone playing. He’s probably the best amateur I’ve played with.

“We know we need to replace him next year and we have plans in place for that.”

Stocks is optimistic that the future is bright for Triangle, and that this season’s title triumph can be just the start.

“It’s a positive step in the right direction,” he said. “We’ve talked about what the plan is for not just next year, but the next five years.

“One of the things we need to address is a junior team, which we don’t have.

“We’ve got a lot of players around early to late 20’s, we’ve got a lot of experience with players who’ve played at a higher level.

“We’ve asked ourselves ‘do we want to just see this as a flash in the pan, or do we think for the next three to five years we can really kick on and have a bit of a dynasty?’

“It’s early stages, we’ve won a league where we’ve played 10 games in.

“I think there’s an attitude there that we can do it, we’ve got a bit of a springboard and a bit of an awakening that ‘hang on a minute, we’ve been able to turn over some really top sides this year’.

“We went to Booth and beat them on the last day, we beat Illingworth at home, so we know we can do it, it’s just about getting a bit more consistency.

“That’s one thing we’ve shown this year and that’s been the difference.”