Match report from Bradford League's Reg Nelson:

On a sweltering day at Lightcliffe, the home side took the field after winning the toss. The team news for Lightcliffe was that ‘big guns’ Alex Stead and Jordan Laban were unavailable and their experienced seamer Andy Walker was injured.

It was obvious that their captain Niall Lockley would have to marshal his young team members very well if they had to prevail against past Jack Hampshire Cup winners Buttershaw St Paul’s.

St Paul’s was soon in trouble at 7-2 after opening bowler Oliver Barrowcliffe removed both Paul Carroll and Jonathan Burston cheaply.

Barrowcliffe and Redford Holdsworth proved to be a pair of young, lively quick bowlers who could extract considerable pace from the wicket.

Holdsworth deservedly took the wicket of Muhammad Addas for 12, and after overseas man Rajat Dey dismissed Mehrban Khan for 19, Buttershaw were struggling at 33-4.

Yasar Ali (36) and Amjid Hussain (29) began the rebuild as the Lightcliffe change bowlers began to toil in the hot conditions. It was up to Dey to peg the opposition back when he took a further two wickets. The tail wagged a little taking the score to 153 all out in 33.3 overs.

Dey had the best bowling figures of 3-30, but Holdsworth, Barrowcliffe, Mohammed Jamal, Jordan Pickles and Leo Flanagan all played their part with wickets, and economical bowling.

Unusually, every batsman was out caught which helped to highlight the excellent fielding from the young Lightcliffe side.

The crowd had grown as the afternoon passed on with a huge contingent of supporters from Buttershaw. The smart new clubhouse was doing good business, and the new facilities looked excellent as the club prepares for their Lashings fixture on Thursday.

The consensus of opinion at the tea interval was that Lightcliffe ought to win. But, there was some caution amongst their supporters because of the hole in the batting caused by the absence of Stead and Laban.

Lightcliffe began like a house on fire as Lockley hit a little cameo of 14 from seven balls. However, when Zahir Abbas clean bowled him, the Buttershaw crowd obviously thought it was ‘game on’.

Both opening bowlers, Amjid Hussain and Abbas kept the scoring under a tight rein, but steady scoring was no negative for Lightcliffe.

Yusuf Malik, Jordan Pickles and Ben Speak all got out when looking comfortable, but the modest runs they got took the score to 91-4, and made the home side favourites.

Overseas player Rajat Dey impressed for Lightcliffe Picture: Ray Spencer

In fact, while Rajat Dey had somebody to bat with, there appeared to be no danger of Lightcliffe losing. He mixed caution with aggression and only played the adventurous shot to the bad ball.

St Paul’s were getting increasingly frustrated, especially when they thought they had got Dey LBW when the ball hit his back leg in the crease.

However, when he did get out playing his first rash shot, his team were 140-7 and the gates were open for the away team with what looked like ever younger batters coming in.

But, there was no heartache for the Lightcliffe boys after the left hander Leo Flanagan, batting at No.9, stroked the ball around, and with Mohammed Jamal, took their club over the line with no further wickets falling.

Dey was truly the unofficial man of the match as he top scored with 44 to go with his wickets in the previous innings.

For St Paul’s, Abbas was the most effective bowler with 3-49, but in the final analysis they lost it because they could not bat their allotted 40 overs.

This is one more stride taken by Lightcliffe to reach a final that they are going to host. They will be waiting anxiously for the semi-final draw.