Showers fell on Wakefield Road on Friday evening meaning the covers were put to use for the first time this season. After a slightly earlier meet time, the boys got into another good warm up whilst captain Alex Stead tossed up resulting in The Villagers being put into bat.

With the absence of Niall Lockley, who was bitterly disappointed there was no frogbox whilst sipping pina coladas down in Cape Verde, Zani and young gun George Leach got the villagers off to a solid yet more ‘old school’ start than normal. Leachy reached 50 before the opposition held onto their first catch after seeing a few shelled and so the scoreboard read 96-1 after 22 overs.

Rhys Jowett entered the field of play and batted extremely well to make 67 off 60 whilst Zan passed 50 and kicked on at the other end. Rhyso fell with the score on 225 shortly before the skipper went for a very well made 90 with just over 8 overs remaining.

Yusuf and Rajat put on 23 in 2.1 overs before Yusuf fell LBW to S. Iqbal with a record-time trigger finger from the umpire. Meanwhile Rajjy was enjoying his time in the middle depositing balls into the field over the bowlers head.

With just 3.4 overs remaining, and the score on 290, Dey fell for a quick fire 35 off 20 meaning Jordy Pick (20*) and Speaky (14*) met in the middle to try and pile on the runs in the last few overs. The job was done superbly as the pair combined finding the boundary and rotating strike to take the total up to 317/5 from our 50 overs.

Yet again the kitchen staff produced some outstanding sandwiches and, as the lads tucked into some lunch, the weather turned with the light dropping and light rain falling. Not enough precipitation to force covers on meant the villagers got fired up and took to the field with one job in mind. Take 10 wickets.

An interesting first few overs including some unorthodox stroke play saw the visitors reach the 7th over on 25 for no loss. Redders and Rhyso combined for the first wicket as the latter held onto an edge off A. Zahid at the second attempt to get the home side up and rolling in their bowling innings.

Wickets continued to fall there after as Walker and Holdsworth were rewarded for bowling consistently good areas and as the first bowling change came about in the 17th over the score card read 62/6. Walker finishing his nine over spell with three maidens 2/40. Holdsworth finishing his eight overs with one maiden 3/21, including a misinterpreted send off (it was not a salute). The always lively in the field Rajat Dey made his mark to take the sixth wicket with a superb run out despite both batters being warned just 4 balls before to not run to him!

Two left arm spinners in Mohammed Jamal and Leo Flanagan replaced the seam and it didn’t take long for Jally to get into work as with the last ball of his first over Rhys Jowett took a ripper at first slip diving to his right to cling on and take the seventh wicket of the innings.

Seeing Harry Brook’s one handed catch above his head in the slips at lunch time had obviously inspired the Lightcliffe fielders as Jordan Pickles decided to have a go himself just six overs later he ran and jumped full stretch to his side 10 yards off the boundary at long off to hold onto Jallys second wicket of the day.

Leo bowled Z. Haider through the gate just four balls later to leave the villagers with just one wicket needed for victory. It was left to Jally to wrap things up just one over later to finish with tidy figures of 5/0/18/3 as Leo ended up with a solid 4/0/16/1.

A great days work for the villagers defeating Windhill and Daisy Hill by 221 runs to take 20 points from the game and move top of the table.

The lads now look forward to next weekend as they host Buttershaw St. Paul’s for the second home game on the spin.

Match Report by Redford Holdsworth. Photos from Ray Spencer & Bob Horne.