Championship Division round-up for 25 June

Half way and Aston Hall are clear out front, as, with less joy, are Green Moor at the other end. There are four clubs – Hallam, Wickersley, Shiregreen and Houghton Main - with one game’s points between them - vying for the second promotion place. While Rockingham really need to get some results together to overcome the 16-point gap keeping them in the second relegation place. But, hey ho, it’s only June and there’s half the season to go. Anything can yet happen – and probably will. 

 

 

Aston gained their revenge on Hallam for being dumped out of the Whitworth Cup by a remarkable partnership of young Bairstows a fortnight ago. Sunday cricket is one thing. The league is what counts and Hallam, with two key bowlers missing, elected to let Aston Hall set a total for them to chase. Rob Heyes removed Ali Ahmed and Joe Stickland fairly cheaply, and Alex Coates raised hopes further by dismissing Matt Barnard and Nasir Omar with the score just over a hundred, but the follow-up wasn’t there and Nathan Ward was able to forge two strong partnerships – with Mainak Ray, but more particularly 74 with Lewis Sansome – to take Aston to 219-6. His share was 84* in 104 balls – a crucial performance in the context of the game and possibly the season. The weather was threatening but never enough to spoil the reply from Hallam, which barely got out of the harbour before it foundered on the familiar rocks of Johannes Bothma. With Dymock, Hughes, Basu and Newton all gone for 59, Romir Singh took the helm and, with Joe Cooper doubled the score, making 62 before becoming the first of Adam Clarke’s three wickets. Alex Coates tried to steady the ship, but the young bloods of other weeks, couldn’t support him this time and the good ship Hallam sank for 176, with more than 8 overs still to go. All hands were saved however and will hope to raise their vessel to resume their voyage, next week. Aston Hall meanwhile are 20 pts ahead, and fast disappearing over the horizon. 

 

Aston Hall 219-6 (50) Nathan Ward 84*, Lewis Sansome 32, Nasir Omar 30 

Hallam 176 (41.3) Romir Singh 62, Alex Coates 43, Adam Clarke 3-34, Nasir Omar 3-40 

 

 

In one of those astonishing games when only three batters for each team made double figures – and three of those made fifties – it was another cruel day for Green Moor. Ben Simpson and Dan Airstone had given them a good start and Wayne Hughes, who scored 851 runs in Div 1 last year including 144 in 83 balls in a cup game, at last found some form in the Championship and made 57* in 36 balls (all but 9 of them coming in 4s and 6s). Unfortunately, at the other end, Buddhika Sanjeewa was gobbling up everything sight. There were five 0s, a1 and a 2, He took 8-53 – the best analysis by anyone in the Championship this year – but Green Moor still made 159 (in just 25.5 overs!). Jonathan Sanders and Chris Matthewman then had Conisbrough 28-5 (including Sanjeewa). But that was as good as it got. Danyaal Latif and Hassan Bin Shahab calmly put together a partnership of 105, with 50 each and although Green Moor tried six bowlers to dislodge them, Conisbrough won by four wickets with ten overs to spare – as befits a team who are 6th in the table – and Green Moor are back to wondering where their second win of the season is going to come from. 

 

Green Moor Sports 159 (25.5) Wayne Hughes 57*, Buddhika Sanjeewa 8-53 

Conisbrough 160-6 (40.3) Hassan Bin Shahab 52*, Danyaal Latif 51, Jonathan Sanders 4-64 

 

 

A solid team performance from Collegiate and a bit of help from DLS saw them take all the points from Barnsley. Five bowlers, led by Ben Fielding, combined to take all the wickets between them, though in a game when no-one scored more than 29, the three top scores all came from Barnsley players. Boeta Beukes and Will Nicholson took them through a difficult start, but neither was able to go on to score enough to break free. Likewise, Matthew Clayton and Jordan Slattery propped up the tail till the rain came and closed their innings on 151-9. Their reward was to bowl with a wet ball knowing their opposition had just to keep their noses in front of DLS to win – and so it turned out. Collegiate batted in fairly similar manner. Adam Burkinshaw and Michael Goodchild both made 22 in and out of the rain and after the second rain break Collegiate’s score was 55-1 in 19 overs (just behind the rate) but the target was revised to 108 off 32. Both batters were out fairly quickly on the resumption but, after the third rain break, Lewis Hogg and Sam Meadows just needed to up the pace a bit to score 40 in ten and the game was theirs. They got there in just over 6 and move ahead of Barnsley and a little closer to safety. 

 

Barnsley and Woolley Miners 2nds 151-9 (48.2) Ben Fielding 4-38 

Sheffield Collegiate 2nds (revised target 108 in 32) 108-3 (28.2) 

 

 

Michael Bates and Matty Bowering scooped up all the wickets between them against Shiregreen, including that of Hamzah Younis, but, with great credit to Shiregreen, they survived the loss of their star man, but it took an astonishing innings of 63 in 25 balls by former Houghton player, Imran Khan, knocking his old colleagues for four 4s and five 6s, like a session in the nets, to take them to 159 all out. The rain then came and buffeted Houghton’s DLS target, initially 165 off 46 (which was more than Shiregreen had been bowled out for!) then, after losing 12 overs, it dropped to 146 off 34, and finally, after they’d been batting for six overs in total and were 14-2, it became 126 off 26 – nearly five an over when Shiregreen had barely managed three. It was a struggle against a fired-up Imran Khan. Matty Bowering got them going with 29 before he was run out. Yousaf Rehman held things together after his team had slipped to 70-7 and, with Dylan Smythe, he nearly turned it round but they fell 12 short with an over remaining. Hamzah Younis appropriately got the last wicket, which turned out to be the high spot of his weekend as Shiregreen lost to Barnsley in the Whitworth Cup on Sunday. On Saturday though, their 12 points took them past Houghton, to 4th in the Championship. 

 

Shiregreen 159 (45.5) Imran Khan 63, Michael Bates 6-55, Matty Bowering 4-36 

Houghton Main (revised target 126 in 26) 114 (25) Yousaf Rehman 39, Imran Khan 4-37, Muhammad Naseem 3-23 

 

 

After weeks off the boil, Wath steamed to victory over poor Rockingham, who could have done without it. The best point for Rockingham, after winning the toss, was when they got to 64-1, with Harry Grindle and Jack Riley batting cautiously but well. However, once Riley was out for 23 it became largely a procession. Grindle hung around for a long while without being able to get the ball away. Bilal Afzal struck a couple of 4s and the last four wickets fell for 2 runs, with Rob Barlow taking 5-25 in 12.5 and Shawn Hopkins 4-34 in 10. The final total of 102 was overtaken by James Barnard and Bradley Williams in less than half the time, for one wicket down. Wath stay 7th but still just about in sight of the top half of the table. Rockingham’s view of safety from relegation has a similar margin but a little less optimism at the moment. 

 

Rockingham Colliery 102 (38.5) Rob Barlow 5-25, Shawn Hopkins 4-34 

Wath 105-1 (16.3) James Barnard 52*, Bradley Williams 49* 

Wath (12 pts) beat Rockingham Colliery (0) by nine wickets 

 

 

Wickersley owed much on Saturday to Oliver Blackburn and Harvey Wootton who made half their total of 168 between them and rescued their team from 67-5 with a partnership of 62. There was no Charlie Harrison this week to beef up the tail. He was busy getting wickets for the 2nds. But most batters hung around for long enough to take the score on, so that in the context of the day and the game, 168 was a fair target to defend. And so it turned out. Sprotbrough didn’t find things any easier. In fact, their first five fell for 59, with Ahmad Bashir and Iftikhar Afzal making inroads, and then there was Mark Cummins, who hadn’t had a long bat and was looking forward to a good bowl. Sprotbrough’s middle order of Dean Williamson, William Rudkin and Rocco Cook tried their best to pull things together but Cummins did for them all and despite a generous contribution of 33 extras, by some way the highest scorer for Sprotbrough, their innings folded on 123 in 44.4 (which sounds a bit like a public service phone no – which Sprotbrough might be in need of to help them move out of the bottom four!). Wickersley meanwhile are back to 3rd and breathing down the neck of Hallam. 

 

Wickersley Old Village 168 (47.1) Oliver Blackburn 44, Harvey Wootton 39, Sadrian Ward 3-34, Scott Mantovani 3-38 

Sprotbrough 123 (44.4) Mark Cummins 5-41, Iftikhar Afzal 3-20 

 

 

League table & leading averages