Bradford League: Frankland leads way as Woodlands return to top spot

A mixed weekend had a happy ending for Woodlands as they returned to the top of the Gordon Rigg Bradford League with a 10-wicket win over Bradford & Bingley when playing one of their games in hand.
Woodlands opener Sam Frankland, who was in great form at the weekend.Woodlands opener Sam Frankland, who was in great form at the weekend.
Woodlands opener Sam Frankland, who was in great form at the weekend.

Twenty four hours earlier they had suffered a shock defeat to Premier strugglers Wrenthorpe, but left that behind to dominate.

Good bowling, led by Chris Brice (3-24) paved the way with Bradford & Bingley kept to 113-9 from 31 overs. Openers Sam Frankland (73no) and Tim Jackson (35no) then led Woodlands home for their big win.

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Frankland was also in fine form against Wrenthorpe as he finished not out again, this time after making 119. With Jackson (44) and Brad Schmulian (56no) contributing strongly Woodlands reached 230-1 from 44 overs.

With a revised target of 219 from 40 overs Wrenthorpe looked in trouble at 49-4, but pulled off the run chase to get home with three wickets to spare despite Brice’s 4-71.

Elsewhere in the Premier Hanging Heaton came up with an emphatic win over local rivals Cleckheaton.

They bowled their opponents out for 111 then reached their revised 81 target with 10 wickets to spare. Nick Connolly (43no) and Gary Fellows (31no) led Heaton home after James Byrne had bowled well to take 6-62.

Kris Ward (24) top scored for Cleckheaton.

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Batley leapfrogged Morley to second from bottom with an 11-run win over them.

Abdul Wahid (47no) top scored as Batley reached 99-6 in 29 overs before rain.

Set a revised 113 from 29 overs, Morley ended on 101-8 with Zafar Gohar taking 6-33.

Birstall’s promotion hopes in Division One were dented when they lost by seven wickets to leaders Ossett on Sunday.

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A poor batting display was at the heart of the defeat as they were put in and only managed 76 runs, Nick Kaye (34) top scoring.

Birstall were also disappointed that Saturday’s local derby against Gomersal was abandoned after they had reached 156-5 from 36 overs.

Batting contributions from Josh Haynes (35), Eric Austin (34) and Brad Lay (29no) were in vain as Gomersal were unable to reply because of the weather.

Only six overs were possible in Hartshead Moor’s game with Lightcliffe as rain ended the contest with Moor on 37-0.

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Hopton Mills came out on top in their Division Two match with neighbours Scholes.

In another rain affected game Scholes were bowled out for 223 and Mills reached a revised target of 171 from 29 overs with four wickets to spare.

Chris Scott (44), Ashley Mackereth (43), Sohail Hussain (30) and Umar Abbas (28no) led them home with Ali Rafiq and Saif Tahir taking two wickets each for Scholes.

In the Scholes innings, Tahir smashed seven fours and four sixes in a knock of 62 while Aqash Aurangzeb hit 45 and Wasim Khaliq 39.

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Abbas (3-65) and Andy Grey (3-50) were the pick of the Hopton Mills bowlers.

Bottom of the table Spen Victoria lost again as they were kept to 90-7 from 28 overs and were beaten by nine wickets by leaders Jer Lane. Qasim Akbar top scored with 33.

A fine knock of 92 from Muhammad Shah, including 11 fours and two sixes, helped Crossbank Methodists to a 21-run win against Altofts in Division Three.

With Christian Duncan also hitting 10 fours and a six in an innings of 58, Crossbank were able to make 227-9 from 48 overs.

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Altofts were all out for 206 in reply as Shah followed up his batting exploits by taking 5-78 and the other wickets fell to Arshad Jan (5-62).

Heckmondwike & Carlinghow won a close rain affected game against Adwalton.

Going in first, they reached 149-7 from 28 overs with Usman Qureshi (40) and Kanhu Charan Pattnayak (36no) making valuable contributions.

Adwalton were set a revised target of 150 from 28 overs and fell four runs short with the result going right down to the final six deliveries.

Pattnayak did most to restrict them as he claimed 3-43 and Javed Iqbal took 2-49.

Liversedge’s match at Brighouse was abandoned after they had reached 25-4 from 13 overs in the first innings.