Lightcliffe U13s win the Heavy Woollen Cup Final

Match Report - Paul Ramsden

A fantastic final between 2 top quality teams

Moorlands travelled to Lightcliffe on Friday evening, having defeated Liversedge, Ossett and Wrenthorpe to reach the final of this year's Heavy Woollen Under 13 Cup final. The hosts had beaten Wakefield Thornes, Mirfield Parish Cavaliers and Hanging Heaton to set up what would turn out to be an exciting and top-quality final between two well matched sides. The Heavy Woollen Under 13 format is designed to guarantee player participation with batsmen retiring at 20 and every fielder required to bowl 2 overs ensuring a real test of team strength.

Winning the toss, Lightcliffe elected to bat and were initially kept in check by the pace of Logan Silverwood and control of Jack Stansfield (both Yorkshire U13s opening bowlers) . The first wicket fell in the 5th over when left arm seamer Danny Murphy bowled Isaac Morley around his legs, so George Leach joined Will Eyre at the crease. George scored quickly to retire on 23, whilst Will retired on 21 having batted superbly to see off the opening bowlers.

Despite the loss of captain Gurdaas Singh run out, Lightcliffe reached 68 for 2 at the end of the 11th over at which point a large total looked likely. Thereafter, however, the Villagers were pegged back as Moorlands fielded excellently with Finley Dearnley and Sam Walker rewarded with a wicket apiece. Matt Brearley was run out off the last ball for 15, leaving Imad Haidry not out on 11.

Lightcliffe scored 32 from their last 9 overs with Silverwood and Walker conceding just 5 runs from their combined 4 overs. The innings closed on 100 for 4 from the 20 overs with most in the ground believing it to be a little under par on an excellent batting track with a fast outfield.

After a quick turnaround, Moiz Naveed and Silverwood took 8 off the first over of the match before Silverwood was caught behind by Will Eyre from the bowling of Hari Singh in the 4th over. Singh's 2nd over garnered 2 more wickets - Naveed, who had earlier hit the finals only 6 into the adjoining pastureland, was bowled before Stanfield was trapped in front lbw. When Imad Haidry struck with the first ball of the 9th over, Lightcliffe appeared to be on top with the score 32 for 4. However, Moorland's skipper Freddie Fortis and Max Wild batted well (joint top score with 14 apiece) to bring Moorlands right back into the match. Monty Ramsden then had a hand in the dismissal of both batsmen, having Fortis caught at cover by George, before catching Wild at long on off the bowling of Joe Wells. Between these two dismissals, Isaac Morley's off spin had taken a wicket thanks to Matt Brearley's 2nd catch of the match. Wells was on a hat-trick with another wicket before George picked one up in the following over, both being clean bowled. This left Joel Dent to take the final wicket to a Hari Singh catch as Moorlands were all out for 77 with 3.1 overs remaining.

The trophy presentations were made by Lightcliffe 1st XI captain in his role as a director of the Yorkshire Cricket Board. Rob Burton thanked the Lightcliffe club and especially the tearoom and BBQ team for their excellent hosting of the final and commended the players on a top notch match with some superb cricket played. He added it was likely that these 2 teams would get to know each other well and meet in future finals.

Scorers Eddie Walker and James Brearley chose Lightcliffe's Hari Singh as the player of the match for his 3 wickets for 2 runs before brother Gurdaas lifted the Gordon S Cooper Knockout Cup trophy n front of the majority of the large crowd who had stayed to witness the presentations.

The victorious Lightcliffe team are pictured above (left to right):
Back row - Matt Brearley, Imad Haidry, Hari Singh, Joel Dent, George Leach, Will Eyre. Front row - Monty Ramsden, Austin Harrison, Gurdaas Singh, Isaac Morley, Joe Wells.