Incidents aplenty

Brian Sanderson on a nailbiter in the Bradford League

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I sent off for Lightcliffe about 11:00 this morning. It’s a 45-minute drive, so I arrived with time enough to survey the brilliant new pavilion. The club was established about 149 years ago; Bob Horne is writing a book on its history. Lightcliffe joined the Bradford League in 1924, and recently discovered that no less a personage than the great George Hirst played for them in 1916.

Their opponents today were Buttershaw St Paul’s, based in Wibsey, Bradford, and founded in the 1890s. One of their most famous players is Alex Wharf, the former Yorkshire and Glamorgan player, now an umpire.

The match was in the Second Division of the Bradford League. Lightcliffe were fifth and Buttershaw seventh. Walking round the ground as play got underway was Rodney Heyhoe, who has been at the club for 71 years. I have memories of him stretching back to when I was playing in a Priestley Shield semi-final over fifty years ago. He is still remarkably active, even helping to cut the grass.

Buttershaw won the toss and batted. Seated comfortably, I took in the picturesque view:

The match itself had everything you could imagine. Buttershaw were 43 for three when Amjid Hussain came in with the number 196 on his back. (It appears that that is his highest score.) He and Mohammed Altaf put on a partnership of 84. When Mohammed reached his fifty, however, he collapsed, having hurt his back, and had to be assisted off the pitch.

Amjid, meantime, was smacking boundaries for fun, although he was dropped twice before being caught on the boundary edge for 62. Then it was up to Zahir Abbas, despite a pulled muscle, to help to bring the score up to 260 all out in 42 overs. The best bowler was Drew Russell, with three for eight. Waqas Ahmed was unfortunate to be banned from bowling halfway through an over for running on the wicket.

After tea came a cold wind, and so I moved to a more protected position. Alex Stead and Niall Lockley, meanwhile, started off as if they were going to win the match all on their own. During their partnership of 89, Stead was struck in the head by a hard drive from his partner and went crashing to the ground. Thank goodness he was wearing a helmet! Niall only wore a cap, so if he had been at the other end, it could have been very serious.

There were many sixes today, but they spared the gardens which were so thoroughly peppered last week. Lockley eventually fell for ninety out of a total of 145 for two, and the other batters struggled against Mohammad Shahnawaz, whose figures were 13-2-49-4. Lightcliffe only scored the winning run in the final over. They were helped by 27 wides, and by the fact that Buttershaw fielded with their two injured players.

An exciting match of many incidents. Let’s see what happens in tomorrow’s cup final.

Brian Sanderson is an ACS member. He serves on the Yorkshire Cricket Archives Committee. If you would like to contribute to this newsletter, please either respond to the email in which you received it, or leave a comment below.