Bradford Cricket League: David Stiff delivers hat-trick in vain but Cleckheaton beat rain for first win

On a day when rain again curtailed much of the action in the Gordon Rigg Bradford League there was cheer for Cleckheaton as they won their first game of the season – but agony for fellow Premier Division side Hanging Heaton as David Stiff’s hat-trick proved in vain when they were denied a likely victory.
Hat-trick hero: Hanging Heaton's David Stiff.Hat-trick hero: Hanging Heaton's David Stiff.
Hat-trick hero: Hanging Heaton's David Stiff.

Cleckheaton beat the weather and defeated Bradford & Bingley by seven wickets to lift themselves off the bottom of the Premier Division.

After bowling out their opponents for 112, Cleckheaton were set a Duckworth Lewis Stern target of 100 from 29 overs and reached it with four overs to spare as Kris Ward hit 26 and Harvey Booth 22.

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Iain Wardlaw (5-56) and Harvey Booth (5-46) combined to destroy the Bradford & Bingley batting.

Hanging Heaton were left frustrated in their Premier match after bowling Townville out for only 67.

Stiff provided the highlight with a hat-trick in his second over and went on to finish with 5-33 while James Byrne weighed in with 4-28 as Townville were dismissed in 19 overs.

Hanging Heaton’s hopes of sealing victory, however, were drowned out when they stood on 20-3 after 11.4 overs.

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The eight points Hanging Heaton secured did at least allow them to climb into fourth place and reduced the gap between themselves and leaders New Farnley to 10 points.

Only seven overs were possible for Batley, who had been reduced to 14-3 by Pudsey St Lawrence when the rain came.

Birstall took their chance to take over top spot after winning the only Division One game to be completed.

They defeated Bankfoot by 49 runs after posting a big 233-3 score in 39 overs. Openers Eric Austin (76) and Josh Haynes (69) gave them a flying start with a stand of 121 before Benedict Gundry (29), Rishi Limbechaya (21) and Matthew Dyson (25) carried on the good work.

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Bankfoot gave their run chase a good go with overseas player Azeem Ghumman hitting 58 on his Bradford Premier League debut. But they lost wickets in pursuit of quicker runs and were all out for 184 with Junaid Delair taking 5-45.

Gomersal started the day as Division One leaders, but could only play seven overs against Undercliffe, reaching 27-2 when play ended.

Unbeaten East Bierley were also rained off when opponents Ossett stood on 520 from 10.2 overs.

Play got underway in every game in Division Two, but all were abandoned after the rain intervened.

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Leaders Jer Lane were 33-0 in pursuit of 151 from 31 overs when their clash with Hopton Mills was abandoned.

An unbeaten 40 from Andy Grey was the main feature of the Mills total of 150-8.

Spen Victoria reached 114-3 at Northowram Fields before the rain came. Bilal Ejaz was unbeaten on 47 and Amjad Tariq not out on 42.

Scholes had Yeadon 79-4 from 19.2 overs at the curtailment with Sikander Mahmood taking 3-29.

All Division Three matches were abandoned after starting.

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Just 17.5 overs were possible at Crossflatts as they reached 40-1 against Great Preston.

Gildersome & Farnley Hill made 36-1 in 8.5 overs against Heckmondwike & Carlinghow while Windhill & Daisy Hill were 29-0 after five overs against Liversedge.

The Jack Hampshire Cup brought more action on Sunday and saw Liversedge’s struggles continue as they were bowled out for 112 by Sandal. Will Atkin (31) was top scorer.

When rain reduced Sandal’s innings to 10 overs the visitors had reached 68-0 and had comfortably exceeded Liversedge’s 42-3 on a comparison of scores.

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Hopton Mills recovered from a bad start when they were 9-3 to beat Brighouse by 42 runs.

With Chris Scott (35) and Gary Senior (33no) top scoring Mills posted a 135-9 total then bowled their opponents out for 93 with Sohail Hussain taking 5-17.

Scholes were up against it after Jer Lane reached a massive 319-7 from their 40 overs and lost by 166 runs.

Despite 57 from Saif Tahir, Scholes were all out for 153 in their reply.