Another day, another Cup semi-final and another stint at the scorers’ iPad. But whereas Sunday morning’s game saw me having to apply after-sun after the win, Monday evening’s encounter has left me battling mild hypothermia. Such is the British summer and such is Bradshaw whose beautiful ground looked far more green than many others I’ve seen in the past few weeks leading me to believe the heatwave may well have passed by that part of Calderdale.

All this pre-amble is simply counting down to the story of another top-class performance from our young Villagers who, 29 hours after reaching a Bradford Junior Cup Final, emphasised their skill and depth by reaching a Halifax Junior Cup Final.

Our U11s are the reigning Collinson Cup champions, a victory secured on the scene of last night’s match. Five of that winning team remained to take to the field, the rest having succumb to the passage of time and movement of age groups. They all performed as brilliantly as you’d expect, as did the other six players who demonstrated the strength of Lightcliffe’s juniors across the board.

Captain George Horne lost the toss and was put into bat – but given George’s form in recent weeks, that was a brave decision from Bradshaw, and so it was to prove as both him and Jonty opened up and quickly retired not out watched on from the lower order’s higher vantage point of a nearby tree.

Wickets fell against a strong bowling attack featuring representative players and Yorkshire prospects, but they couldn’t dent the flow of runs as our very own Yorkshire talent Ollie also reached the retire not out target. Henry scored an important 15 and Hugo, one of this season’s new U11s, produced his best performance of the year with a poised and composed knock of an unbeaten 17 from just 10 balls.

136/5 was the total by the end of the 20 overs. Defendable, yes – but we knew we’d need to be on our game against quality batters.

We were.

Only one Bradshaw player was able to reach double figures as a steady stream of wickets falling meant they could never really get going. Isaac and Henry performed brilliantly behind the stumps, stopping many a potential bye. The wickets were shared around – Ollie striking first and then once more (in fact, the biggest challenge he faced all night was putting on his jumper after his spell), Leo took two and one each for Dom, Jonty, George S and Hugo. But it wasn’t just bowled wickets – there were a couple of excellent catches from our safest of hands, George H and Dom, plus a couple of brilliant run outs with quality fielding and Isaac and Dom’s quick reactions removing the bails.

Bradshaw had made 60 by the time Hugo took the last wicket on the last ball of the 19th over – a comprehensive victory secured and another Final place booked.

Lots to take from the game – while Sunday’s semi saw us not lose a wicket, this semi saw us take all 10 of the oppositions – so much to be proud of but also things to work on (aren’t there always) as we now countdown to our Collinson Cup Final where we will meet Friarmere CC on Sunday 30th August at 1pm (exact time to be confirmed) at Booth CC. Bring it on!