Farsley CC v Undercliffe

Date: Saturday, July 12
Scores: Farsley 194 – 6 dec: Undercliffe 100 all out: Farsley won by 94 runs
Points: Farsley 18 – Undercliffe 3
Weather: Cool
Venue: Red Lane

Visitors Undercliffe arrive at Red Lane as one of only two teams to have beaten the Rams this season (Keighley are the other) but quiet unable to repeat their victory back in early May as the Rams were again full value for their 8th League victory at Red Lane this season. This in itself is quiet probably a record for the club since joining the Bradford League way backing 1912, particularly in view of the fact that there are now no "draws" in the League these days which helps produce positive results of course.

It didn't always look like a win for the Rams however on a tricky wicket, slow and damp by recent heavy rain, proved too difficult a surface for both Harvey Anderson and Dan Clayton to show their true batting talents against a lively 'Cliffe attack. Clayton in particular erred on the too-safe approach by batting for over two hours, facing 98 balls, and making only a disappointing 15 before being out in the 33rd over of Farsley's innings, thereby throwing undue pressure on the batsmen who followed.

Anderson had departed LBW at 24 – 1 in the 14th over for16 and even West Indian Lorenzo Inghram had difficulty in getting the bowling of Nawab Sardar, Alex Romaniw, James Clarke and Ben Heritage away for runs who, in turn, managed to contain the home side to modest 51 – 1 at drinks, Clayton then being on a miserable 8 not out , poor lad.

Clayton's eventual painful departure at 69 – 2 brought in skipper Dave Syers at number 4 but Enzo was soon out after this, caught on the edge for 30 in trying to 'up the Rams' runs tempo which now stood at 78 – 3 with only 15 overs remaining of their innings.

Matters got worse for Farsley when in-form Syers departed for a modest 10 runs to a shot he would certainly not have played had things gone brisker earlier on and a scoreline of 94 – 4 with less than 12 overs remaining spelt out Farsley's batting torment at this key stage of this promotion tussle.

Sardar had taken three wickets of Farsley's 4 by this stage in a telling 12 over shift of seam bowling for 24 runs and with Ben Heritage spinning his off breaks a considerable amount from the scoreboard end there was much for Shabbs and Ash to do to get the Rams on some sort of course. Cometh the hour as they say………

In a quite eye catching batting partnership of selective ball placing and shot selection the Ram's middle order pair took the Undercliffe attack not so much apart but certainly to a bursting-at-the-seams point and runs came far more readily than the previous Ram's batsmen had been able to fashion.

The pair stroked, caressed or simply smote their way to the 150 mark (2 batting points for Farsley) with 4 overs remaining, Shabbs batting like only he can on those occasions when he gladdens the eye and he went to a quite delightful 50 out of 170 – 4 with Ash also keeping things moving as well at the other end. The visitors' Mark Gilliver eventually clung to one of Ash's big hits near a distant boundary edge at 177 – 5 – Ash had made a fine 33 in partnership with Shabbs worth a valuable 83 runs> It was an unlucky and some what dubious looking run out from a James Clarke throw that ended Shabbs' fine knock for 63 on the very last ball of Farsley's terrific fight back, their tea time 194 – 6 having seen them score an impressive 93 runs from the last 10 overs and 47 from the last 5 which whilst not as many as Undercliffe had made on their own ground in May, it at least brought Farsley to tea with more than a fighting chance.

Nawab Sardar had been the pick of the visitors bowling with 3 – 51 in a full 15 over shift, Alex Romaniw (1 – 47 also in 15) and James Clarke (10-1-39-1) being the other wicket takers whilst Ben Heritage went wicketless in his 10-1-37-0 stint.

Undercliffe had made 250 – 4 at Intake Road in May (to which Farsley responded with a losing 224) with a fresh-in-the-mind innings from Duckworth (61), Clarke (a not out 92) and a 'blitz-krieg' of an innings of 50 in 22 balls from left hander Hawley still possibly fresh in the memory as Farsley's bowlers began the job of bowling out the strong looking Undercliffe batting line up.

Although opener Mark Gilliver did not score too many (18) at 'Cliffe on that occasion he has regularly plundered big runs against the Rams, but noton this occasion as Chris Henry and Bozza Thornton each tore into the early visitor's batting line-up. The balding Gillivar was the first to go, LBW to Chris for a duck, Duckworth followed the very next ball to the same bowler, again LBW and Sardar escaped the same fate with a hat-trick ball by the narrowest of margins, 'Cliffe 0 -2 before the washing up had even been finished.

Heritage didn't last much longer as Henry grabbed his 3rd LBW decision (how popular LBW's are to the modern day umpires at all levels) and at 21 – 3 Undercliffe's target of 195 to win the game looked light years away. Farsley's total looked even still further away when Bozza uprooted overseas Sardar's middle peg and the on fire Thornton then clipped big hitter Hawley's off stick for a duck (that's cricket, Mr. Hawley) to leave the visitors gasping for air and their faithful following already moving in to the bar at 31 -5.

Left arm Lorenzo Inghram replaced Henry at the Pavillion end just as 'drinks' (except there weren't any) at 44 – 5 and soon picked up wicket number 6 when big Will Kitchen held on to a near boundary edge catch off Hussain to just about end any wild thoughts the visitors might have had of winning the match.

Clarke and Elhee did make a bit of fist of resistance but soon after Ash replaced big Matthew Lumb at the scoreboard end Syers grabbed his 30th victim of a highly successful season by catching an Elphee snick, 'Cliffe 69 – 7. Enzo spilled a hard caught and bowled and even Ash suffered a rare big hit 6 deep into "cow alley corner" where few Farsley people ever venture but Enzo made up for his slight blunder by making another "c and b" look easy (Milner gone for 3) and ten amazingly running out last man Romaniw for 10 whilst the poor chap was still admiring his hard hit drive, Undercliffe down and out for only 100.

Chris Henry's 12-15-17-3 was the pick of the keen as mustard attack, Bozza grabbing 2-21 in 12 overs (4 maidens), Enzo 2 – 35 in 11.5 and Ash finishing with 2 – 9 in 6 controlled overs of off spin, Lumb going wicketless.

With now 8 games to go, the Rams (202 points), Idle (190 points) and Gomersal (179 points) still hold the top three League placings with both the latter two sides and 4th placed Keighley (163 points) yet to come to Red Lane where of course the Rams have not been beaten all season!

Explanation of bonus points in Bradford League:

* A bonus point is awarded for scores of 125 and above when batting (at 25 runs intervals up to a maximum of 5 at 225 runs). For every wicket taken, from two wickets up to a maximum, there are also 5 points. When bowling "penalty points" are deducted from sides who contravene the "overs-rate" League rule.