Bradford League: Scholes climb table as Craig Wood and new man Ali Rafiq shine

Ali Rafiq, on his way to making an unbeaten 80 on his debut for Scholes against Wakefield St Michael's. Picture: John Clifton

Wood opened the batting and blasted nine sixes as he hit 74 from 55 balls, while Rafiq marked his debut by top scoring with an unbeaten 80, from 96 deliveries, in a total of 239-7.

Wood followed up with 3-11 as St Michael’s, despite an unbeaten 87 from Marcus Leyshon, were bowled out for 203. Mohammed Akif (3-61) was the other main wicket taker.

Elsewhere in Division Two Hopton Mills’ game against Yeadon was abandoned without a ball being bowled while Spen Victoria lost out by five wickets to East Ardsley.

After electing to bat first, Spen were kept to 166-9 in 42 overs with Amjad Tariq contributing 39 and Qasim Akbar 26.

Tariq followed up by taking 3-44 with the ball, but Ardsley were able to reach their target in the 26th over to go top.

In the Premier, Hanging Heaton lost by 33 runs at home to new leaders Woodlands.

An unbroken eighth wicket stand of 83 between Tom Clee (41no) and Scott Richardson (33no) proved crucial to Woodlands’ win. They came together with their side in trouble at 99-7 after left-arm spinner Callum Bethel (3-73) had sparked a collapse following the dismissal of opener Sam Frankland for 38.

Woodlands’ score of 182-7 soon took on a more challenging look as the home side slipped to 9-3. Skipper Ben Kohler-Cadmore restored some order to the innings with a determined knock of 50, while James Byrne made a spirited 40, but Heaton were all out for 149.

Batley are still looking for their first win since promotion to the top division as they lost by 70 runs to Bradford & Bingley.

They did a decent job in the field to keep their opponents to 170-9 with Mohammed Bhoola leading the bowling attack well in taking 3-55.

But despite 42 from Sufyan Patel, Batley were all out for 100.

Cleckheaton dropped to second from bottom following a 48-run loss to Farsley as they were all out for 147 in reply to 195-6 despite 43 by Harvey Booth and 35 from Ethan Lee.

Division One leaders Birstall, along with third-placed Gomersal and fourth-placed East Bierley all had their scheduled matches abandoned.

Crossbank Methodists were able to climb the Division Three table with a five-wicket success at Windhill & Daisy Hill.

Good bowling by Joel Barnett (4-26) and Imran Patel (3-25) paved the way as Windhill were dismissed for 150 before Rizwan Abid (36no) and James Colbourn (34no) brought Crossbank home in their reply.

Heckmondwike & Carlinghow fell 69 runs short after bowling Crossflatts out for 199 with Paul Cooper taking 4-42 and Javed Iqbal 3-32.

After losing four early wickets in their reply, Usman Qureshi (45) led a recovery, but Heckmondwike were all out for 130.

Liversedge are still winless in Division Three, but could be encouraged by their batting against Altofts as they posted a 199-8 score with Samar Farooq (42no) and Shoaib Rehman (38) top scoring.

But Altofts were able to reach their target with three wickets to spare. Adam Clarke claimed 2-78 and James Lunn 2-31.