Farsley v. Morley C.C.

Date: Saturday June 14
Scores: Farsley 308 – 9 : Morley 204 – 8 : Farsley won by 104 runs
Points: Farsley 19 – Morley 8
Venue: Red Lane, Farsley.

Farsley made it five successive home victories of the season with this emphatic 104 runs romp against visitors Morley.

West Indian Lorenzo Ingram and Rams' veteran Ashley Metcalfe paved the way with individual 100's in Farsley's mammoth 308–9 tea time total.

Batting on another Red Lane belter of a wicket, the Rams didn't make the start they would have liked and at 53 – 3 there was still plenty to do after Anderson, Clayton and Rashid had all departed for early showers on another cold late Spring afternoon. Morley had Yorkshire batsman Chris Taylor in their line up and Nick Bromby – who turned out for Pudsey Congs last season – opened the visitors' bowling with some success but by the time 20th over arrived the Rams had recovered to 100 – 3 and Lorenzo and Ash were both looking settled and good for a big innings apiece.

Drinks and light rain arrived almost in tandem at 125 – 3 but a short interruption didn't seem to bother either batsman as runs began to mount. Enzo was first to his 50 out of 133 – 3, Ash moving on to a similar score with a 6 and a 4 to put the Rams inn the driving seat at 159 – 3, their century partnership now the feature of what was turning out to be a good afternoon for the Farsley team and watching faithful.

Chris Taylor tried his arm by now at stemming the flow of runs but went for 18 in one blistering over at which point the home side had reached 169 – 3 and there were still 18 overs remaining. Ash was matching his younger Jamaican batting colleague run for run and 4's and 6's were scorched around the Red Lane enclave with abandon, Morley's bowlers by now admiring their bootlaces and avoiding the searching eye of their beleaguered skipper.

Enzo went to his second 'ton' in 4 innings for his new club out of 233 with 12 overs remaining before being caight out at mid wicket after an alliance with Ash which added a massive 179 runs, Morley now having to try and stop hard hitting newcomer David Syers from adding to the tally of mounting runs. A tired Ashley Metcalfe was eventually caught at 3rd man after making his first 'ton' (111 actually) at Red Lane for quite a while and Will Kitchen joined Syers at 272 – 5 with 8 overs of plunder to go.

Nathan Bromley had laboured hard and well for the visitors from the pavilion end but he looked short of support, albeit big Will didn't last long and late order wickets were sacrificed in a push for more runs. Frankland (12) Chris Henry and David each getting out to leave Farsley on a team time score of 308 – 9, Syers having made a useful 26 in the Rams' late push. Bromby was easily the pick of the not too impressive Morley attack, finishing on a creditable 5 – 67 from is 14 over toil, the 16v year old Spencer Horsfall chipping in with 2 – 65 on his introduction to Bradford League Cricket.

The salmon and cucumber sandwiches were rather more palatable on the Farsley table than they were on Morley's as the two Taylor brothers mused over how to tackle a 209 winning target as they began against the Rams' duo of Chris Henry and Bozza Thornton.

As defied his advancing years and pulled of nature's gravity to pouch an early chance by Mark Taylor off Henry's bowing in the gully, Morley 10 – 1, and when County batsman Chris Taylor followed soon afterwards, neatly caught at mid-wicket by Lumb, again off Henry, Morley were clearly looking down at least one barrel at 29 – 2, still a matter of 280 runs from an unlikely victory.

Lorenzo Ingram was introduced with his left arm spin at the pavilion end and made an immediate impact with a wicket, bowled, to put Morley at 68 – 3, albeit with only 11 overs gone. Drinks later arrived at 104 – 3, Ash's introduction with his off spin at the scoreboard end and Enzo's bowling having slowed down Morley batting proceedings from a quickstep to a slow waltz.

Barry Frankland pouched a great low down catch deep in the well manicured Farsley outfield to make the visitors 121 – 4 (Ash the bowler) and then Enzo made a quite breath-taking and eye-catching stop, pick up, and throw to run out another bewildered Morley batsman who was still admiring his shot.

Dan Lloyd went to a well earned half century out of 129 – 5 just after this latest piece of wizardly from Enzo and then skip produced a bit of his own magic with more swift glove-work to stump another visitor before Chris Henry's re-introduction at the scoreboard end cart wheeled wicket number 7 first ball; Rams in clover, Morley smelling something a little less pleasant at 170 – 7.

Nathan Bromby can hit a ball further than some of us (pensioners go on holiday and proved a point in a gritty Custer-like late, late show, a hard hitting 37 depositing one ball on a far away house roof and another big hit causing pandemonium at Leeds and Bradford International Airport's traffic control centre! Great cricket, but it couldn't last and Harvey Anderson's off spin eventually saw off the big hitter – another slick stumping by Syers and Morley subsided to a final 204 – 8 with 4 batting points to show for their creditable efforts.


Chris Henry was again amongst the wickets, his 3 – 47 taking him to 21 League wickets for the season but Enzo's remarkable full shift of 15 overs produced a telling 2 – 19 return which is the retail equivalent of 'Buy one, get four free offer'. The West Indian is already proving to be a great catch for the Red Lane Club with both bat and ball, plus his astonishing and athletic fielding talents.

Other results went largely in Farsley's way, both Gomersal and Undercliffe suffering defeats and Keighley involved in a rained off affair. Idle remain top and Bankfoot are emerging as a possible threat to the promotion hopes of up to five other contenders.

Farsley now face two crucial up and coming games at Gomersal and Idle both away from the Club's Red Lane fortress, results of which may well fashion the second half of the season's cricket leader board.

The club are pleased to welcome back Matthew Green, the popular batsman / wicket keeper who returned to Farsley after a short spell with Rawdon CC.

Idle 139 points, Farsley 135 points, Keighley 123 points and Bankfoot 117 points.