Tough-looking trip to Triangle for Illingworth St Mary’s in Halifax Cricket League Premier Division

Records flew out of the window as the winners hit two massive scores of 239-4, in its semi-final versus Thornton, and 225-2 in the final against Blackley, who had defeated SBCI in the second semi-final.

The undoubted star of the day, and man-of the-finals, was Rob Laycock who hit 102 not out and 103 not out respectively – competition rules dictating retirement at 100. A scoring rate, over its 40 overs, of 11.6 runs an over will take some beating.

That performance came in direct contrast to the previous day where Booth’s batting, in the ENCO Premier Division on its visit to SBCI was, with one exception, shambolic. SBCI had set a target of 198 to win but only Hashim Wajid (77) was in any form as his ten teammates could only muster 33 runs between them in an 121 all out total. That allowed Triangle to increase its lead at the top to 23 points as it had no trouble, on its travels, defeating Bradshaw by 101 runs as Nathan Madden (85) top-scored.

The talk of the League at the moment is Illingworth St Mary’s slide towards the relegation places. It started the seaon as one of the favourites for the championship but, of late, it has struggled to find any batting form. For the second time in a month it was bowled out for under 70 runs, last Saturday at home to Thornton for 62 runs, and is now only 10 points clear of the bottom two.

The first tie of the season came at Mytholmroyd where 404 were shared with Shelf Northowram HT.

The First Division was turned upside down as the top three all lost at home. Clayton’s secured the best win in beating second-placed Luddendenfoot by 179 runs whilst Low Moor HT, on its visit to the leaders, Sowerby St Peter’s, won by 62 runs. The winning trio was completed by travelling Upper Hopton, whose captain could not believe his team was invited to bat by Oxenhope on the hottest match day of the season. Result - the visitors won by 73 runs.

In the Second Division Greetland had a fright, at home to Outlane, where both teams scored 153 all out to record the second tie of the day. Whilst the leaders still have a 15 points gap at the top Southowram is the in-form team and won again against Old Town. With Greetland having a free date on Saturday a Rams victory at Augustinians will see the lead whittled down to just three points.

Elsewhere on Saturday Illingworth St Mary’s will not be looking foward to visiting free-scoring Triangle, whilst Booth should get back to winning ways as Sowerby Bridge visit.

In the First Division, after last week’s results, it is hard to predict any of the matches with perhaps the tightest contests being at Low Moor HT, where Oxenhope visit, and Upper Hopton where Luddendenfoot will be keen to improve on last Saturday’s poor effort. In the Second Division it will be interesting to see if third-placed Bradley & Colnebridge can also cut the gap at the top as it makes the trip to Queensbury,

On Sunday Walton Street features the Covid-19 delayed Crossley Shield Semi-Final (1pm), between Sowerby Bridge and Blackley, to establish who joins Sowerby St Peter’s in the final.