Lightcliffe have been leaving their best performances for the Cup so far this term and an ultimately comfortable victory against a young but talented Buttershaw team (many playing at Wakefield Rd the day after their under 15s league fixture) was a credit to their all round performance, especially in the second half of the game.

Lightcliffe chose to bat and got off to a good start with Jack Booth’s cover drive firing well. His dismissal bowled for 19 with the score on 40 was therefore a little surprising.

This brought together the team’s backbone Regan and Jake Broadbent, but Buttershaw’s bowling was of a high standard and Jake departed too swiftly with the run rate squeezed.

Daanyaal Ahmed and Regan restored a 5 per over tempo with a selection of shots and rapid running, until Broadbent was undone by a direct strike from deep square leg, run out for 32.

Ahmed went next over for 23 and when Alex Kennedy found deep square leg first ball, the innings for a moment looked rocky.
Liam Holmes dug in, and along with Jordan Pickles using a variety of techniques all of them effective (including Jordan’s first maximum into the field) used the last 5 overs to put on another 31 runs.

A par score some felt. The half time team talk was simple – Buttershaw had bowled well, so do better. The team did just that with their best all-round display to date.

Matthew Sumpner struck in his first over and his partner Ahmed’s typically tight spell produced a squeeze on Buttershaw’s top order.
Captain Jack Booth astutely rotated his bowlers with a double spin change. For once Kennedy couldn’t claim a victim and Jordan Pickles chose his moment to produce his best form with his new found off breaks.

Jake Broadbent and Ahmed both made skiers look comfortable, as Buttershaw hit out in a vain attempt to up the run-rate, to give Jordan career best 5-18 figures.

Two catches for Regan Broadbent – to give Shoaib Hassan his reward, was capped by a motivated and intense quality fielding performance from the whole team, where John Eliot and Billy Hartley also contributed.

The two sides meet again in the final League fixture of the season on Wednesday.