The ground and facilities looked splendid, the sky was blue and the pitch was rock hard. But those extra 2mm of grass that Rodney likes to leave on these days meant that an even contest between bat and ball was in prospect.

Shorn of their captain Rob Burton, the team was manfully led by Michael Brooke, who was nursing a painfully chipped bone in the finger.

There was intense drama immediately before the toss when Rhys Jowett was whisked away to play for the firsts, replacing Leo Flanagan whose hamstring had popped just moments before. Could the club find a high quality and experienced left-handed batsman to replace Jowett at a moment’s notice? No, so they had to ask the Chairman to play instead.

On winning the toss and batting first, Brooke sent in a youthful top four. All four got starts but none could go on to a big score. Isaac Morley’s straight drive was in fine fettle as was Will Leach’s pull shot. Lucas Arnot and Monty Ramsden showed glimpses of their county-level class. But all perished to catches, reflecting the bounce and carry in the wicket. There were no Knight-time fireworks in the middle order this week, so it was left to young Sam Walker and Marcus Kelly to ensure LCC posted a defendable score.

The pair delivered perfectly. Sam’s 48 featured 10 fluent fours and a lot of mature watchfulness. He full deserved his maiden Saturday senior 50 but was cruelly sawn off by an LBW verdict. Marcus’s pugnacious 31 was the ideal foil.

The rather tame dismissal of the Chairman in the 47th over brought Captain Brooke to the wicket in the highly unusual number 10 spot. But Brooke showed he is no one-trick-pony as he stroked the ball cleanly from ball one. The innings ended with the most unexpected and exquisite stroke for four by Brooke. Your correspondent can only describe it as a lap-sweep taken from fifth stump line, reminiscent of Surya Kumar Yadav at his IPL best.

A great deal of planning and late effort was spent trying to ensure 225 was reached to secure maximum batting points. Finishing at 229 for 9, that mission was accomplished. It was only later in the pavilion that it was discovered the league had increased the total needed for maximum batting points to 250 this season. You live and learn.

After the usually superb LCC tea, the second half started with Oliver B and Oliver F opening the bowling. In no time at all the Olivers' Army was on its way, with Oli Frearson drawing bounce from the surface for a catch to Will Leach at a cunningly positioned deep gully. Oli Barrowcliffe was applying pressure with immaculate line and length allied to decent pace at the top end, when Oli F secured a second, carbon-copy of a wicket, this time the ball struck Will’s sternum with a satisfying clunk as he clutched a flyer. Now Oli B took a deserved wicket, caught behind by Monty, to set Farsley back to 26 for 3.

From here Brooke decided to tighten the screw by introducing the wide variety of spinners at his disposal. All four – Marcus, Sam, Lucas and Isaac - bowled with control and turn, sharing five wickets between them, the pick being Sam’s perfectly flighted leggies taking 2 for 26. At this time the Farsley score (and their spirits) were being kept in check by superbly athletic fielding in the youthful ring, led by Isaac and Lucas, and more safe catching from Marcus, Monty and Will.

The climax was delivered by Oli F, who came on for what we expected to be a spicy second spell. In fact he only needed three balls to take the final wicket, and claim the truly impressive figures of 4 for 18.

And so an emphatic 106 run victory was achieved with 15 overs to spare. What better way to start the season? The win was driven entirely by the young players. And there was even plenty of time for the older players to interrogate the football scores in minute detail in the changing room afterwards.

Much was made of the excellent fielding in the post-match review. The old adage “catches win matches” was never better exemplified as LCC took all eight chances offered to them. The bounce and carry in the wicket made for notably good cricket, creating the unusual stat that the stumps were broken for a dismissal only once in the game. Let us hope the weather allows our groundstaff to continue to produce more similar surfaces as the weeks go by, and the cricket remains of the high quality, competitive and winning variety.

Match Report by Richard Leach