Championship Division round-up for 11 June

 

Bottom played top at Green Moor, with a predictable outcome, but not before Chris Matthewman had done his best to hold together a fragile middle order, and Josh Wood had again stiffened the tail. However, it was mainly an enjoyable day for Nasir Omar, who outperformed everyone on both sides with runs and wickets. Green Moor’s first four started well and were 75-2 at one stage, before Adam Clarke scooped out the middle and left them 76-5. Chris Matthewman’s 42 almost single-handedly filled up the gap, taking them to 128-7 and Josh Wood continued (as he had against Collegiate the week before) with 32, so Green Moor reached an unlikely 157 in 41 overs, of which Clarke bowled 13 and took 3-34, while Nasir was less economical but got both Matthewman and Wood in his 4-35. There were fewer events in Aston’s innings. The high spot for Green Moor was getting Mark Barnard, who scored heavily for Aston at the start of the season but has been having more of a struggle recently, for just two in seven balls. The Aston innings also had the third wicket fall around 75, but there the similarity ended because Nasir Omar returned with the bat and he and Nathan Ward saw them home with the loss of only one more wicket. 

 

Green Moor 157 (41) Chris Matthewman 42, Josh Wood 32, Nasir Omar 4-35, Adam Clarke 3-34 

Aston Hall 159-4 (36.2) Nasir Omar 46, Ali Ahmed 39 

 

 

At last, Conisbrough really got things together – they batted really well and showed the character to come back when the game seemed in Houghton’s control and hold their nerve to win comfortably. Mathew Lowe and Hamzah Ilyas started it all off with a second wicket partnership of 124. Ilyas particularly set the pace. In his 86 off 82 balls only 38 runs came in boundaries, so 48 in 73 were physically run, which is pretty good going. By contrast, Buddhika Sanjeewa and Scott Lowe, who took things further away from Houghton, relied on big strokes. For both, only a third of their runs were not boundaries. Between them all, Conisbrough reached 265-7 – a tough ask, even for Houghton on their own ground. Houghton started really well though, coalescing around Michael Brown who scored 102 (with 62 run off 136 balls). They passed 150 for just three down, but they weren’t going fast enough. The required run rate was already up to 10 an over, thanks to Sanjeewa, who bowled his 11 overs at less than three and Scott Lowe with 15 at only fractionally more. Those who were hoping to crash on, crashed out. Hassan Bin Shahab went at six an over but took four crucial wickets and the chase folded at 231-9 and Houghton missed the chance to stay up with the leaders. 

 

Conisbrough 265-7 (50) Hamzah Ilyas 86, Matthew Lowe 52, Buddhika Sanjeewa 49 

Houghton Main 231-9 (50) Michael Brown 102, Hassan Bin Shahab 4-83, Buddhika Sanjeewa 3-32 

 

 

Shiregreen scored 249 with an over to go against Barnsley Woolley Miners 2nds, and did so without relying on a major contribution from Hamzah Younis. Umair Tariq made 71, putting on 59 with Aslam Hayat for the 3rd wicket, and Kamran Khan (32 in 26) accelerated them to 200, leaving Shohaib Khaliq (40 in 49) nearly taking it to 250, the last three batters all sacrificing themselves to run outs to get every last drop out of the race. Barnsley however, showed no such urgency and struggled with regular loss of wickets. Freddie Chapman made 33 in 71, but held the early overs together. Anthony Godley (30) and Boeta Beukes (44) did their best to support in the middle and with an entertaining unbroken last wicket stand of 33, Barnsley reached 193-9 – enough for two points, but a long way from the 12 they needed to make themselves safe. Shiregreen stay fifth, nestling just behind Houghton. 

 

Shiregreen 249 (49) Umair Tariq 71, Aslam Hayat 49, Shohaib Khaliq 40, Kamran Khan 32 

Barnsley Woolley Miners 2nds 193-9 (50) Boeta Beukes 44, Freddie Chapman 33, Anthony Godley 30, Imran Khan 4-60, Muhammed Khan 4-62 

 

 

Sprotbrough collapsed before a great spell of bowling by Jawad Akhtar for Rockingham. Daniel Wright and Sadrian Ward put on 73 for the third wicket. Ward made 44 and Wright took the score to 136-3, when Adam Kaye became Akhtar’s first wicket, shortly followed by Wright and eventually the rest of the team were winkled out for 173 with six overs still to go. Jawad Akhtar took 5-38 in 14 overs and Peter Lomas and Aquib Shaikh two each. With encouragement from their bowling performance, Rockingham rediscovered their batting too. Ben Dalton and Mikey Denton put on 59 for the third wicket and then, while Denton continued to hold up one end, calmly waiting for the bad ball to hit boundaries (despite facing 100 balls, 70 of his 85 runs came from just 17 deliveries - 16 fours and a six), a succession of players got enough runs to take Rockingham past Sprotbrough’s total with four wickets and six overs remaining, a very welcome performance which takes them past Collegiate and away from the bottom two. Sprotbrough slip to eighth. 

 

Sprotbrough 173 (43.3) Daniel Wright 60, Sadrian Ward 44, Jawad Akhtar 5-38 

Rockingham Colliery 174-6 (43.2) Mikey Denton 85* 

 

 

Collegiate were inserted at Wath and lost their first three batters for 25 to Jack Whitlam and Steve Honeyman, but 16-year old Tom Currie pulled things together with his first Championship 50, in 103 balls, in partnerships of 51 with Ben Fielding and 59 with Lewis Hogg, before Shawn Hopkins and Rob Barlow wrapped up the innings for 169. Hopkins took 4-48 in 13, Barlow 3-35 and there were three stumpings for Mason Bannister. When Wath batted, Mark Barnard occupied one end throughout the innings, making an unbeaten 89 in 137 balls. Harrison Knowles helped him put 48 on for the first wicket, and Patrick Selkirk shared an unbroken stand of 50 for Wath to win the game by five wickets. Unusually none of the Collegiate bowlers took more than one wicket, in a game they may choose to forget, except of course for Tom Currie. 

 

Sheffield Collegiate 2nds 169 (47.2) Tom Currie 53, Lewis Hogg 38, Shawn Hopkins 4-48, Rob Barlow 3-35 

Wath 170-5 (46.3) James Barnard 89* 

 

 

Wickersley pulled off a fantastic recovery to beat Hallam and overtake them in the promotion slot at the top of the table. At one stage they were 16-4, with James Smedley taking all four wickets. Oliver Blackburn and Peter Smith pulled them round with a partnership of 65, but both fell at 85. The next four wickets put on 102, principally through a partnership of 60 by Abu Sufyan who scored 47 in only his second game for Wickersley, and 18-year old Charlie Harrison, who the previous week, playing for Wickersley 2nds, was left stranded on 96 not out when time ran out against Caribbean. Last week his team lost, despite his innings. This week he helped transform the game, building up Wickersley to 187 and leaving Hallam completely deflated, such that when they batted, Ifti Afzal ran through the early order, sending three back for 0, and were it not for Nick Dymock’s 41, would have reduced them to 25-7. As it was, in the context of the game, 66-7 didn’t seem much better, except that then it was Hallam’s turn to twist the fortunes with a 77-run partnership by Harman Puni and Robert Heyes, taking the score to 143, just 45 away from their own stunning recovery with more than twenty overs remaining. Oliver Blackburn is given the ball – has three overs, bowls two wides, concedes ten runs but crucially bowls Puni and has Heyes lbw. Mark Cummins finishes it off and a fascinating, emotion-churning game is over with Wickersley triumphant and a lot of sheepish faces amongst the batters. On a day when 332 runs were scored, of the top four on both sides, only one batter made more than six, and the bottom four on both sides scored half their team’s runs. What a game! 

 

Wickersley Old Village 187 (40.5) Abu Sufyan 47, James Smedley 4-33, Harman Puni 3-45 

Hallam 145 (29.4) Nick Dymock 41, Harman Puni 37, Rob Heyes 31, Iftikhar Afzal 5-52 

 

 

League table & leading averages